


Why Me?

by ronnieangell



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: I'm not sure yet, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Time Travel, Universe Travel, my oc is from another universe and gets sucked into DW, not romantic - Freeform, this is on ff and I'm moving it onto here as well, this might get really dark
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-05-26 13:10:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6240601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ronnieangell/pseuds/ronnieangell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Veronica Brown lived a relatively normal life; she grew up in a small town, was attending college, and was working as a waitress to get by. Her interest in sci-fi is put to the test when she's pulled through a crack in the universe and thrown in to a whirlwind life with the Doctor and Rose Tyler. But how will she cope when the Doctor isn't who she thought he was?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Coffee House Crack

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Doctor Who. This is on my fanfiction account under the same username, I'm just also posting it here. I've had this idea in my head for way too long so it's good to finally write it out.

“Oh my god, Liz!! Look what someone drew on the wall of Dunkin’ Donuts!” cried a young woman excitedly. It was the middle of the holiday season and the shops of cities around the world were bustling with life as people milled about, looking for presents to give family to friends. Store-front windows were lit up and displayed many items, each trying to get the most customers. The aforementioned woman was doing just that, and held several different shopping bags from her expedition for gifts, each one filled with different items. She was dressed warmly for the weather, holding the ever-changing New England weather in consideration. The brunette woman donned a thick, dark purple, zip-up coat that went over the top of her dark blue jeans, on her feet were black, high-top Converse. A blue scarf was loosely hung around her neck, and a hat that was previously on her head was now stuffed into one of her pockets. 

Another woman, presumably the one  whom she had called for; Liz, came jogging over, holding bags of her own. She was blonde-haired but not profusely, more sand-like. Her face was riddled with faint acne scars from her teenage years, and thin, black, square-rimmed glasses were donned on her nose. Elizabeth was dressed lighter than the brunette woman, wearing only a sweatshirt over her shirt, as well as jeans and work boots. On the sweatshirt was an emblem for a band called “Ghost B.C.”

“Is that the crack in Amy’s wall?” asked Liz, grinning slightly. “That’s amazing!” 

“I know!” squealed the other woman. “It even looks like it’s glowing!” One the wall of a famous coffee store in America was a white and yellow crack, that appeared to be emanating light in all directions. Both Americans were talking about a recurring theme in a sci-fi show they both watched; Doctor Who. It wasn’t weird to find random pieces of art around Boston, especially before the holidays. People would try to hone their skills before presenting a piece to a loved one. 

“Here, gimme your bags; I want to take a picture of you with it!” said Liz, motioning for the girl’s bags while simultaneously reaching for his phone The brunette did just that before posing in front of the “crack” with a grin on her face. Several photos were taken while she did various poses. “Wait…..make like you’re going to touch the crack!” exclaimed Liz excitedly. “I am so showing this to Erin later!” The woman rolled her eyes but did as such, even “daring” to put her finger on it as a mischievous look crossed her features. Mischievousness turned to shock, however, as a bright light sprouted from the crack, it beginning to grow wider as it did so. Passer-bys stopped to stare. 

“What the fuck?!” exclaimed the woman, as a similar response of ‘what the fuck’ also shot out of her cousin’s mouth. She made to move away from the crack, frightened out of her wits as the drawing was now moving and making weird sounds. People had taken out their phones to film and take pictures. Before the woman could really move, however, the crack opened up widely, temporarily blinding everyone who had gathered around the happening. A loud high-pitched scream tore through the ear drums of the passerby and cousin, the woman nowhere in sight once the blinding light had subsided. 

“VERONICAAAA!!!!!” 


	2. She Would Never

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veronica realizes something revolutionary; Jack is there to comfort her.

Veronica felt like her body had been torn apart and put back together wrongly; her limbs felt numb and she felt like she would hurl at any given moment. The world was flipping and spinning as she attempted to move her arms and push herself up. On each attempt to do so her stomach churned and her head felt light and airy, so she stayed where she was for a few minutes as she tried to gain her bearings. Where even was she? What had happened? There had been some sort of bright light, given by the spots dancing in her eyes when she blinked, but she couldn't recall from what. 

"Careful there, Princess," soothed a familiar but also unregistrable voice. Veronica blinked a few more times, finally clearing the spots from her vision and also beginning to stand as the world no longer spun when she moved. The voice belonged to a man, a man who currently had his arms around her as he helped her up onto her feet. It was only when Veronica finally looked up did she place the voice, the only thing she knew for certain in her prominent moment of confusion.

"John Barrowman," she stated simply, a dazed look becoming one of amazement as she gazed at one of her favorite actors. "You're John Barrowman!" Despite feeling like she could throw-up the contents of her stomach at any given moment, she couldn't remember what they were either, Veronica couldn't help but gush in excitement in the presence of one of her and her friends' favorite actors. This thought caused even more to come swirling back into the woman's hazy memory; she suddenly remembered what she had been previously doing, where she had been only seconds beforehand. Multicolored lights entered her memory, and she remembered that she had been in a city with festive decorations up. She had been shopping with her cousin Elizabeth, hadn't she? So why was she suddenly in the arms of John Barrowman, otherwise known as Captain Jack Harkness from Doctor Who, with no sign of Liz anywhere? She wasn't even near any buildings! She voiced her confusion, suspicion slightly laced in; "Why am I in the arms of John Barrowman?"

Barrowman's face had increasingly contorted into utter confusion with every sentence the woman had spoken. "No, Princess, I'm not- Akane, it's me; Jack. Don't you remember?" he asked, hurt coming over his face. Veronica pulled out of his grip and firmly stood on her own two feet.

"No, you're John Barrowman. You  _ play  _ Captain Jack in Doctor Who, don't  _ you  _ remember?" she asked sassily as she cocked her hip to the side, folding her arms across her chest as she tried to mask her confusion.

The man in the World War II trench coat blinked, his face slowly morphing into one of distraught, sadness, and of pity. His hand came up to cover his face as he spoke, suddenly looking like he was a thousand years old. "Oh no," he said softly. "Oh Akane. I am so, so sorry."

"My name's not Akane, a-and your name's not Jack! You're John Barrowman! You  _ play  _ Captain Jack in Doctor Who, don't you _ remember _ ?" she countered, her Boston accent becoming even more prominent as she became emotional. The man in front of her was scaring her. Her name wasn't Akane! And he was  _ clearly _ John Barrowman! Why was he being so stubborn?

"Jack!" called another voice. Veronica whipped her head in its direction, though instantly felt slightly nauseous when she did so. The new voice didn't give her time to ponder Barrowman's words as the owner of the voice began jogging towards them. It was the actress who played Suzie, but Veronica couldn’t quite remember her name. "Jack, Tosh may have figured something out on the meteorite. Oh, hello Akane," said Suzie, welcoming the girl once she had noticed her.

This statement caused even more confusion for Veronica. Why did Suzie’s actress call him Jack as well? Was she on some sort of set? Oh, oh! That was it! Her friends had pulled some sort of prank on her so she was on the set of Torchwood! Though it wasn't much of a prank since she got to meet some of her favorite actors. Was David Tennant there too? Maybe she could meet Davies! But how did they set this whole thing up anyway, her friends? This must have taken months of planning, and money, considering who was here.

Seeing the thoughtful look on the other woman's face, Jack quickly cut in before she said something she would later regret. "We'll be there later Suzie. Take the SUV and go back to the hub," Jack said sternly, not giving room for questioning. The woman did as such, though with confusion gracing her facial features. She didn't question her superior's orders, however, as she had heard that tone of voice seldom before.

Once Suzie was out of sight and hearing range, Jack turned to his friend, heaving a big sigh as he knew what bomb he would have to lay on her, metaphorically of course. He dragged his hand down his face in resignation, this wasn't what he had planned today.

"Alright, Akane, you're probably not going to believe me on this and let-me-finish-before-you-ask-questions," he began, speaking quickly at the end as Veronica had opened her mouth to speak, probably to deny her name once again. "Akane, I'm so very sorry but, you're not in your universe anymore. You've been pulled from it by the time vortex. You haven't really explained it to me the few times you have told me about it, but you were pulled through a crack in the universe and the time vortex. And I'm sorry, but you can't go back. You can never, ever go back, " Jack explained as best he could. He didn't want to sugar-coat it; Akane would never forgive him if he did, but he didn't want to be too harsh or too brash. This was basically his sister for crying out loud!

Veronica stared at him in shock as she took in this new information. "No but, I-I was just there. I was just there-I was shopping! I was just shopping with Liz! It can't be true. It can't! You-you're pulling some sort of prank on me! You and my friends! They paid you off! It's a trick! It's-It's all a trick….." she trailed off at the end, eyes widening as she seemed to believe what came out of her mouth. Then they narrowed again, her body tensing as her new found anger flowed through her body. "Yeah, yeah; it's a trick. And not a very funny one at that! Why should I believe you?!" she exclaimed, tears beginning to form as she was frustrated and confused. The more she thought about it, the less it seemed like a plausible prank. How could her friends hire Barrowman and Suzie's actress just for a prank, especially since they've all been complaining about money problems. And her parents barely knew the character names, never mind the names of the actors! What the Hell was going on?!

While Akane ranted and raved at him, Jack had noticed something in the background, something behind Akane. It slunk around on two legs, either like it wasn't used to walking or like one leg was shorter than the other he couldn't decide. His eyes went wide as the creature came closer; it was a Weevil. 

The Weevil paused for a second once it had come a little closer; it seemed to be staring at him, Jack thought. Then it growled, completely pulling back its lip to bare its teeth, and began charging towards the two humans.

Jack's breath hitched, his body immediately reacting by tackling the brunette to the ground while yelling "Get down!"

Veronica yelped as her body hit the ground, what the hell did Barrowman think he was doing? She gasped as she saw him get up from on top of her and pull his signature pistol from its holster; it had been hidden by his coat. 

There was a growl and quick, heavy footsteps coming towards her before she heard Jack fire the gun. She gasped at the sound and covered her ears with her hands, slightly curling up into a ball. It was so  _ loud. _ And it was so close to her. 

More shots were fired as the weevil screeched in agony, something Akane could only vaguely hear over the gunshots. In reality they didn't echo, but they seemed to resonate within her head, coursing through her body as she tried to draw her body tighter around itself.

Jack lowered his gun once the weevil stopped moving; its chest didn't rise and fall, and it didn't twitch in pain. It was dead, they were safe. Movement next to the weevil did catch his eye, however, and his breath hitched as he realized that it was Akane. She was completely curled up in a ball where she had been tackled to the ground a few minutes earlier. Her hands were over her ears, her eyes were squeezed shut and - was she shaking? 

The ex-army captain rushed over to the brunette with a cry of "Akane!" to try and comfort her, but he quickly stopped. What would he even do? Every cell in his body screamed at him to pick her up and cradle her, but he knew otherwise. Akane hated people suddenly touching her when she didn't see them coming. And whatever sort of panic or anxiety-induced attack she was having now probably only increased her sensitivity to it. 

It was quiet now, Veronica knew that. It was quiet and she could relax; she was fine. So why couldn't she stop.  _ Because she felt safer,  _ came her thoughts. Because if she became small enough, if she was quiet and no one knew she was there, it would stop. Everything would eventually stop and go back to normal. But now it wasn't quiet. Now there was a voice, a man's voice calling someone else's name. But she knew that name. That was the name she used to write in so many of her stories. It was the character she had put into countless scenarios in all of her favorite shows. It was the character she could use to escape from it all. So why was another person calling her that name?

"Akane, Princess, please, you need to calm down. You need to breathe," Jack attempted to soothe. He had sat down next to her, his arms loosely hooked around his legs. His voice was soft as he  spoke, trying to coax her out of the state she was in. "Look, the  weevils dead, it can't hurt us anymore, you're safe, you're fine." He stared at her, an almost helpless look in his eyes. He didn't know what to do; he didn't want to risk putting her further into distress, but he didn't know how else to help the brunette. He'd never seen her like this before. 

Thankfully, it seemed, Akane was trying to calm herself down as she finally stopped shaking, though she remained balled up. 

"Akane," Jack started again, slowly gaining more confidence in what he was doing as Akane seemed to relax. "I'm here, Princess. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere." Her legs loosened up, her muscles began to un-clench themselves. "You're not going to get hurt, no one else is here with us." Her eyes opened, her breathing slowed. "You can relax, you can let go. You're okay." Her hands came off of her ears.

Jack breathed a sigh of relief once Akane had finally relaxed; he hadn't thought that he'd be able to do that. 

"What the hell is that?" Veronica hoarsely whispered, her throat a little sore from fighting back tears. There was a thing staring at her. A no-nose, wrinkled creature with fangs sticking out of its mouth. And it wasn't moving. Still unnerved, however, the brunette pushed herself up off the ground, inching herself away from the creature. It looked like, it looked like a  _ Weevil. _ But it couldn't be. There was no possible way that it could be a weevil. They  _ didn't exist. _

"It's a Weevil, Princess," answered Jack solemnly. "Surely you recognize it?"

The girl slowly nodded, too disoriented from everything that had happened to properly respond. There was a weevil in front of her. A  _ weevil _ . And it was dead; Captain Jack Harkness had killed it. Captain Jack Harkness in all of his World War II trench coat glory. 

Veronica took in a shuddering breath as her hand flew up to her mouth, trying to stifle her sobs. She really was in a different universe. 

The con-man turned savior-of-alien-races enveloped the girl in a hug, being able to do nothing but sympathize with her and comfort her. He knew that she had finally figured it out, finally accepted the truth of what had happened. Or, at least, she was beginning to. There'd be a long road ahead of them both now, and she needed to be ready for it.

It was there, crumbling in the arms of a practical stranger, that Veronica felt the weight of the universe crash down upon her. She could never go back to her universe; her home. She could never just walk into the house she had grown up in and hug her mom, kiss her cheek, pet the dogs, and help her cook brunch on those random days that she was home from college. She would never play cribbage with her dad again and laugh when he pegged a point she had missed. She would never play guitar with him again. She would never have the chance to make-up with her ex step-father. She would never hug her little sister again and cheer her up when she got a bad grade on a test she had studied hard for. She would never lounge around with her cousin and friends, doing random things and squealing because of anime and fandoms. The ceaseless "would nevers" and "could nevers" bore into her soul like a dagger straight through her heart. Her entire life, everything she had ever worked for was gone. Completely eradicated. She wanted to scream, to scream and cry and cuss the world out, so she did. Though she despised it; she cried, she cried and sobbed and hung onto Jack Harkness like her life depended on it. It was all her brain could muster to do at the moment.


	3. Home is Where the Heart is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pizza fixes everything.

About 10 minutes later Jack helped Veronica, who had a pale face and red-rimmed eyes, slowly stand up after her breakdown. He had slowly pulled her down to the ground at some point so she wouldn’t have to awkwardly stand as she cried. “I’m sorry, Akane,” said Jack, pulling the girl into another hug. 

She sniffled. “Why do you keep calling me that?” asked Veronica with a scratchy voice, pulling away from him even though she really wanted a hug. It was too weird though. She was thrust into a world that only in her dreams did she believe was real, seeming to be on familiar terms with one of the most handsome men on the show, and being called by the name of her OC. 

Jack’s face fell, saddened as she pulled away. “It’s your name,” he answered. “Or, at least, the one you’ve told everyone.” 

If Veronica, or Akane; as it seemed to be the name she was known by in this universe, had been in her right mind at the moment, she would’ve instantly begun to question it, come up with hypotheses on why that was so. At the moment, however, her mind was too befuddled to try and comprehend further information. The fact that she would never see her family again, and the fact that one of her favorite shows was real was too much at the moment, so she simply nodded. She assumed that there was a reason for being called the name of her OC, but pushed it away to figure out later. All she wanted to do right now was curl up in bed and sleep. 

“C’mon,” said Jack, taking her hand and gently pulling her in the direction Suzie had walked off in. “Let’s get you to the Hub. We can sort everything out there.” 

Veronica was silent as Jack walked her towards the nearest street to call a taxi, she was silent on the ride to the Hub, and silent as he briefed the team on why she was there and where she was in her timeline. She sat there awkwardly as the two other members of Torchwood Three were briefed, not quite knowing what to do with herself. They were still in the main part of the hub; where all of the desks, gadgets, and time rift machines were. Veronica stood off to the side as Tosh and Suzie stood in front of Jack’s desk, the two being the only current members besides Jack. She was too nervous to go look around; with all of the alien technology around her and just the sight of the machines in front of her, not knowing what they could do and were for, it all intimidated her. 

To try and diminish as much shock as possible, Jack brought her to their conference room afterwards as it was probably the most normal. He sat her at the head of the table then left, saying that he would be right back to bring her a cup of hot chocolate, which he did. From experience he knew that the sugary drink was her favorite and was often used to comfort her. He had sat with her for a little bit for comfort and in case she had any questions she may want to ask, but after close to an hour of silence Jack knew he had to get back to work. 

“Just yell if you need me, Princess,” he said, getting a barely visible nod in response. Jack frowned, but he knew that after a breakdown Akane preferred to be alone to try and regain her thoughts and decide what to do. He sighed but went back to work anyway, Torchwood needed a leader after all. 

Veronica’s mind had completely shut down, too heart-broken and lost that she just didn’t know how to function. She had never felt this way before. Her mind was always running a million miles an hour in ten different directions, making connections to things, trying to solve problems, trying to see which major she would settle for, how she would pay the bills with each coming month,  and she was always trying to do something. Playing some type of sport, playing the guitar or her viola, she couldn’t sit in one place for long. And if she did, she made up for it in her sleep by practically destroying the sheets she made her bed with; they’d end up tangled up between her legs or completely balled up to the side, ripped from the places where they had been tucked beneath her mattress. For her to be just sitting there, doing nothing but stare off into space, Veronica seemed to be broken. It was unnerving for Jack and for the rest of Torchwood Three’s members as they normally saw the girl to be alive, sarcastic and curious of all the work they did, wanting to help them in any way she could. 

Veronica stared at the wall, not noticing as the hours drifted by on the clock next to her. She didn’t know what to do, her mind was lost and in shambles, she didn’t feel like getting up moving, or making herself of use to do anything. She felt like if she just sat still long enough, if she just stayed out of sight and alone and didn’t do anything then she would go back, to leave whatever dream she was currently in. Nothing made sense. How could she have been pulled from her universe? How could she be shopping with Liz one moment and in the arms of John Barrowman the next? Oh God, Liz. What did she think happened? Was she okay? And the rest of her family? What did they think happened to her?

It was near noontime when Torchwood Three had gotten the spike in the rift and gone to investigate and found Veronica, but four hours after she had arrived at the hub and she hadn’t moved a muscle besides absentmindedly drinking her hot chocolate. It was unnerving to say the least and Jack had had enough. He walked into their meeting room, where she sat at the head of the table. He pulled out a chair next to her and took one of her hands into his own, finally causing her to be pulled out of whatever reverie she was in and actually look at something. “Akane,” he said softly, “I know this is hard for you, but you need to snap out of it. This isn’t you and you’re scaring us. You’ve been sitting here for four hours barely moving. Look, I know what you’re going through, you’ve just lost everything and you’re lost, scared, and confused, but sitting here isn’t going to get it back.”

“But it’s gone,” whispered Veronica, as tears once again began to well up in her eyes. “Everything I’ve ever worked for, everything I love is gone.” 

Jack sighed and pulled the girl in for a hug, unfortunately being able to empathize with her. Maybe not to the degree of losing his whole universe, but he knew what she was going through; he felt similarly when he lost his memories, when he lost his brother, when he was stranded by the Doctor. “I know, Princess, I know. And I can’t give that back to you, and you probably won’t ever get that back, but you can’t just sit there and waste your life away. I know you; I know you don’t know me but I know you, and you wouldn’t just idly stand by and watch someone else’s life slip away if there was something to do about it, and I’m not going to do that to you. I’m going to help you get back on your feet and get you out there.” Jack remained soft as he spoke, not wanting to scare her off by shouting, but wanting to get his point across. Jack stopped in his speech for a moment, pondering on whether or not Akane would need to hear this, before deciding that she did. “You’ll probably yell at me for this later, but you will have the most wonderful adventures, Princess. You save so many people and so many planets. It’s not going to be perfect at first, and I’m sorry, but you need to go out there and live your life; to do what you’ve always wanted to and make a difference. Okay, Princess?” Jack finally finished. 

By the time Jack had finished his soliloquy, there were tears in a now alert Veronica’s eyes as she nodded. “Thank you,” she whispered, reaching over to hug him again as silent tears began to cascade down her cheeks. “You don’t even know me a-and you’re doing all of this, just, thank you.” 

Jack gladly hugged back, glad that the girl he knew was back. Maybe she wasn’t ready to take on the universe just yet, she still needed time to grieve and to start a new life, but for the moment she was focused, and he was happy. “I would do anything for you Princess, remember that. And I do know you, you just don’t know me yet. I know you’re extremely confused right now, but it will all work out in the end, I promise.”

* * *

 

A week later, Akane now lived in a temporary apartment, or flat, as they called it in England, and was beginning to get her life back on track. She’d been introduced to the other members of Torchwood Three; currently only Tosh and Suzie. It was January of 2005, she’d learned, and Akane spent her days either at Torchwood, helping as much as she could, or job hunting, looking for things to keep her mind busy; to do anything but think of her life back home, to do anything but think of her family and friends; how they must be reacting, what they must think. Akane had no clue what they thought about her back home; was she dead? In some type of coma? Did they think she was missing? Kidnapped? It was unnerving not knowing what had happened, and she often cried herself to sleep thinking of her family and friends, among other things. 

Akane also had no clue what she was going to do for her future, she hadn’t yet graduated from college and therefore had no degree; though Jack had said that she could easily get one here, and she was just generally confused on why she had been pulled from her own universe. 

That was how she had described it; pulled. Not taken, not driven, not forced, but pulled. Akane wasn’t sure why but it fit, and it wasn’t just the pull she had felt on her body as she was pulled through the void and into another universe. 

Akane had also begun to question her name in this universe; why she had chosen it, why she used it, why she had to keep her name hidden, as that was what Jack had told her. After almost a week of giving it thought, as she thought about it almost every time her mind was left to wander, which was honestly quite often, she determined that it was to help close off the two universes, as she remembered that Rose also hadn’t told Donna her name in Turn Left. Akane assumed that if she used the same name in both universes, they could somehow get tied together and the walls wouldn’t hold. It was easier anyway, for everyone else. They all seemed to know her by Akane and whenever she tried to get them to call her by her real name they shushed her, saying that she couldn’t tell anyone what her real name was. Of course, she wasn’t an expert in the mechanics of universes and time fractures, and didn’t even know if her assumptions would even make sense to someone who was, but she decided not to risk it. Knowing that that was the name she had to use from now on as everyone already knew her by it, she began to call herself that, and though she knew she would always be Veronica at heart, she decided that it would be easier to get used to the name of her OC if she called herself by it. It would help her distance herself from her other universe; it was too painful to even think of it and, as awful as it seemed, she would rather just not think about it and forget it. 

Akane hadn’t forgotten, however, that when Jack had been comforting her on the day she had arrived, he had mentioned that she would go on many adventures. He hadn’t clarified and refused to talk more on the matter, only saying that she would have to ‘wait and see,’ but Akane hoped that those adventures would be with the Doctor. 

Akane currently sat in the passenger seat of the Torchwood SUV, with Jack in the driver’s seat. He was going to grab a pizza or two for the group and had said that some fresh air would do Akane some good, she’d been sitting in the hub all day with nothing much to do. She cleaned up the place the best she could and attempted to organize files, only to find no where to put anything. All of the filing cabinets were filled with reports and data sheets from previous years, and all counter tops were filled with gadgets, cans, wrappers and what not. It was a typically slow day for the group; Tosh was fixing the program that they used to monitor the rift, as it needed updating and there were some bugs in it, and Suzie stayed behind incase Tosh needed help, and to also monitor the rift to see if anything changed. There was not much Akane could do at the moment; she knew how to work computers quite adeptly, but not at the level that Tosh and even Suzie were at. There were also different programs and procedures for the computers from this time. She was only 11 in 2005 back in her universe, and though she remembered what the computers were like and how to work them, she didn’t remember everything and obviously didn’t know how to write any programs, fix bugs, or hack into security footage like Torchwood was often apt to do. She was sure that if she were left to her own devices long enough that she could figure it out, or at least have Tosh teach her, but she wasn’t quite up to it. Akane wanted to have as much of an ordinary life as possible for the time being; knowing that soon it would all change again as if it hadn’t already changed enough as it was. She had come to terms with the fact that she was in another universe, as hard as it was to believe. In curiosity, Akane had googled herself the night before, in both of her names plus her usernames on the sites she went on. Absolutely nothing had come up, however. No social media sites, no writer pages, no blogs, nothing. Not even anything on her possible travels with the Doctor. 

Maybe because she hadn’t actually travelled with him yet, if at all. Or maybe it was because the Doctor had removed anything about himself from the internet. She couldn’t safely bet on either. It was probably for the better, Akane decided. If she knew her personal future, who knew what could happen. 

Jack looked over from his place in the driver’s seat, noticing the quietness of his ‘sister.’ “You okay, Princess?” he asked, turning his attention back to the road in front of him. She had begun to open up to him and his team members in the last couple of days, asking questions about what they were doing, what they knew of her in this universe -as it was obvious that they already knew the dimension-travelling girl, although she didn’t know them- and what she should be doing with her life to get where she needed to go. They couldn’t answer much, due to the fact of not being able to knowingly tell someone of their personal future, but they answered what they could; that she would need to move from Cardiff to London soon and get a job, but that she would often be back to visit. 

Akane shifted in her spot on the left of Jack, pulling herself up from where she had slouched over against the window. “Yeah, sorry,” she said quietly. “Just thinking.” 

“About?” asked Jack, looking over at her again. 

“I googled myself last night,” she answered solemnly, continuing to look out the window. It was weird, not being able to find out anything about yourself through the Internet. She and her friends had all done so together several times, just to see what would come up when future employers went to look them up and for curiosity’s sake. There was information on just about everyone, even people who didn’t use the Internet. 

“I was wondering when you would,” answered Jack, clearing his throat a bit as he also sat up straighter. “And? What did you find?” 

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing!” Akane exclaimed, finally looking over at the man who claimed to be like a brother to her. “No internet usage, no phone records, no social media, blogs, pages, job applications, nothing!” She waved her hands in the air with each thing she listed off, always having talked with her hands to provide emphasis. It was a trait she had picked up as a kid, her brother and sisters did it, her mom did it, her dad did it, it was just a habit she’d picked up. “It’s like I don’t exist in this universe!” 

“Well,” trailed off Jack as he dragged out the word, knowing why that was so. After certain incidents, a certain group of people wanted no records of themselves lying around and deleted themselves from the internet. On top of the fact that Jack believed that this universe had never birthed its own Akane, she didn’t exist.

“Oh you’re fucking kidding me,” swore the brunette, placing a hand on her forehead. She continued speaking, however, this time quieter than she was before, “I don’t exist, do I?” 

“Not in the way you’re pursuing, no,” answered Jack. There was a brief moment of pause before Akane spoke up again. 

“I looked up my family too, and my friends. They exist, they all live generally the same life that I had back home. Except,” she trailed off not wanting to believe what she had found on the Internet. They did say that not everything was true on the internet, right? Akane started to twist the ring she wore on her right ring finger in nervousness. It was a simple one, a claddagh ring with two vertical lines on the sides and four vertical lines on the outside of them. In the middle was a long, oval opening with a heart in the center, a crown on top of it. The point of the heart was pointed away from Akane, showing that no one had her heart at the moment. 

“Except?” pushed Jack carefully, he knew that the topic of family and friends was still very fresh to Akane, and not a subject to carelessly prod open. They often found her crying in different hidden spots in the Hub when she was left alone for too long. 

“My,” Akane started, having to pause to take a breath and steady herself. “M-My sister, my little sister, doesn’t exist either.” 

“Oh,” said Jack surprisedly, his eyes widening. This was definitely news for him. “Oh Princess,” sighed Jack softly, reaching over to take her hand in his. She complied, wanting some form of comfort while discussing the disturbing topic. 

“My mom never married my dad after she divorced my older two sibling’s father, she j-just married my step-dad,” she further explained. A few tears crept out of Akane’s eyes as she did so, voice cracking just slightly at the end. She’d cried too many times in the past week, and loathed the fact that she had done so. She knew that she was entitled to mourn for her family, and was rightfully doing so as she missed them terribly, knowing that she could never go back to see them. But in doing all of her crying and moping, Akane felt useless, as if all she were able to do was be a useless crybaby. 

“Akane,” started Jack a minute later as they stopped in traffic at a red light, turning his head to look over at her caringly but sternly as he gave her hand a squeeze. “Akane, listen to me. This universe, this universe just got it wrong, okay? They don’t get the amazing experience of knowing you and your sister. Your family does, the family you have back in  _ your  _ universe, loves you immensely, I’m sure of it. Okay? You have a family. The people here aren’t them. They share the same names and may look alike, but they  _ aren’t  _ them, alright? These people didn’t go through the things that you went through with your family, they didn’t watch you grow up, take care of you when you were sick, or help you in times of need, as heartbreaking as that may seem. Those people who look and act like your family here aren’t your real one; your real family is the people who grew up with you, cared for you, and share memories with you back in your universe, and even in this one as you’ll learn, alright?” Jack was wary when he stopped talking, had he said the right thing? Did that even help at all? 

By the time Jack had finished speaking, the light had turned green and the cars in front of him started to move again. By the time Jack had finished speaking, there were also tears now freely rolling down Akane’s cheeks as she gripped his hand. A small sob escaped her lips as Jack started to drive again.

“Thank you, Jack,” whispered Akane through her tears, attempting to clear her throat to be able to talk. “Just, thank you. It sounds weird but, I needed that. I really, really needed to hear that.” A small smile showed up on her face, causing Jack to breathe a quiet sigh of relief. Not many smiles had shown up in the past week, and, though it was perfectly understandable why, he missed her smile. Most had shown up unconsciously when she was lost in thought, most likely thinking of memories of her family. The rest were when Jack tried, really,  _ really  _ tried to make her laugh. He knew she liked jokes, especially when they were fandom related. He didn’t really know much about the fandoms, to be honest. Most shows, apparently, had started in 2005, and he planned to start watching them, at least a little bit, to give her someone to talk to about them. Jack knew one ticket in, however, from years of knowing her; stupid, really,  _ really  _ stupid puns. For whatever reason, they made her giggle; especially if it was two people going back and forth with them. 

Jack smiled as he saw the smile on his sister’s face and said, “You’re welcome, Princess. Now let’s go get those pizzas.”


	4. One Step Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moving is practically routine by now, so why is it so hard to do this time?

It was about two weeks later when Jack told Akane that she should prepare to move to London soon. He’d helped her get a resume together and got her the same credentials she’d had back in her universe; with help from U.N.I.T. of course. She had had a few jobs back in her universe; waitressing, working at local supermarket chain called Market Basket, and more recently had been interning as an engineer at a computer mechanics company. It was a fun albeit challenging job and she’d looked forward to one day working there permanently. Now that she was in a new universe, however, Akane didn’t know what she would do for work. She had a sneaking suspicion that she’d be working with Rose due to a comment that Jack had made when she first got there, but she couldn’t be sure. For now, however, she had help with money from Jack. 

Akane had realized within the second day of being in the new universe that she would need to go shopping for clothes and all of the essential products. She’d reluctantly gone to Jack for money, knowing the the expenses would be quite large and that she had no British money on her whatsoever. Jack had only smiled, however, when Akane had nervously come to him about buying clothes and all other necessities. 

“I’ve been saving up, Princess,” he told her as he sat at his desk. Akane stood in front of him, nervously twisting her claddagh ring as she waited for his answer. “I knew you were coming, wasn’t quite sure when, but I knew you were coming. I’ve been putting money aside for years waiting for this, don’t worry about it,” he continued with a grin. Jack then stood up and led her out of Torchwood Three and to the nearest ATM to show her the balance in a savings account he had made just for her. 

Akane gasped as she stared at the numbers on the screen. She really didn’t know the exact ratio from American dollars to English pounds, but she definitely knew that £500,000 was a  _ lot  _ of money. “Holy shit,” the brunette slowly breathed as she stared aghast at the screen. That was more money than she’d seen in her entire  _ life. _

Jack chuckled at his sister’s reaction. “There is enough money in this account here, Princess, to get you all the commodities you need, buy an apartment, and pay for rent, utilities, and food for probably the rest of your life,” he explained before exclaiming; “Gotta love interest!”

Back in the present day, however, Akane was packing the items she had bought in various boxes and bags with help from the Torchwood team. Jack had already helped her pick out an apartment as well as send out some resumés for her job hunt. A rental moving truck was outside, ready to be loaded up and driven to London. The address had already been programed into the GPS in the truck and Akane vaguely knew the way from having driven out there to see the apartment with Jack. 

But Akane was terrified. This would be the first time she had had her own house, her own living space. And she was 3 hours away from the closest people she had for help. Add on the fact that Akane was now in a different universe, unable to contact any family or friends and was currently without a job or degree meant that she was internally quaking with anxiousness and nervousness. She knew she had to go to London, to get the ball rolling on her adventures with the Doctor, to save the world somehow, but was this really worth it? Was it really worth giving up her life? Her friends? Her family?

Akane sighed as she placed the last box into the back of the moving truck, her thoughts all a jumble in her head. They always seemed to do that lately, running around in her head, stumbling over each other as each thought tried to take priority in her mind. She could never think about something clearly, each thought she had spiraled off into another thought, then another and another.

To be frank, Akane was overwhelmed by everything that was happening to her. She was sure that if things just kept happening to her with almost no break, she wouldn’t be this way. But it was the waiting, the constant waiting for something to happen, for something to change, for the possibility of this all being a dream and she would just wake up in her bed, her alarm clock blaring by her head. But it wasn’t, she was here, her life had been completely fucked up, and now she had no chance to take control of it.

Akane jumped down from the bed of the truck, reaching up for the string to pull down the door of it. She sighed again as she heard the clank of metal on metal and slowly turned around to meet the members of Torchwood that she had become close to over the past month. “Well,” Akane began, not entirely sure what she should say. “This is it,” she finished, shoving what she could fit of her hands into her front pockets, her shoulders shrugging as she rolled onto the tips of her toes and back down again. 

Suzie was the first to come forward after a brief moment of silence, no one wanting to break the way of life the four had fallen into. Jack and Akane would sleep at the Hub, as she apparently had a bed there, after Suzie and Tosh had gone home for the night. Jack would get up early in the morning, before the team got there, while Akane would tend to get up sometime after both Suzie and Tosh would get there a few hours later. Akane would help them with their work once she had gotten ready for the day, though there were many things there that needed explanations, and she was taught many technological things by Tosh in their spare time. Once she had brushed herself up on basic computer programs for 2005, Akane was able to learn Torchwood’s programs and how to work them, and had started to learn current encryption programs. Tosh and Suzie would eventually go home, either when Jack gave them the order or when their work was done, whichever came first. 

Now, though, that was coming to an end; the first hug goodbye from Suzie seemed to solidify that. “I’m going to miss you,” the taller woman said, her arms wrapping around Akane’s shoulders. The American hugged back, pushing back the reminder that Suzie would kill people in a couple years. She hadn’t done it yet, nor was she that person. And she really was a nice person, she had a love for knowledge that she and Akane both shared.

“Me too,” Akane mumbled, hugging Suzie back. Both women pulled away, though Suzie’s hands remained on Akane’s shoulders. 

“You’re going to be great Akane,” she assured, causing the other woman’s lips to perk up in a small smile. Suzie’s hands fell away from the younger girl as she began to walk back towards Jack, Tosh taking the woman’s place. 

The Japanese woman smiled at Akane before wrapping her arms around her in a hug. "Keep in touch, okay?" Tosh requested as she pulled away. 

Akane nodded in confirmation, “Of course.” Tosh nodded back before stepping away, allowing Jack to have the final good-bye. She and Suzie went back inside the Hub SUV, allowing Jack to have a private moment with his sister. 

Jack said nothing as he walked over towards Akane and engulfed her into a hug, his head right next to hers. He held her for a minute before he decided to speak. “I am so proud of you, Akane,” he murmured in her ear in a rare note of solemnity. “Don’t you ever forget that. This is an enormous step you’re taking, and I know that it’s been difficult, but I am so proud of you, alright?” he told her, trying to keep himself together. He had an idea of where she was going, the adventures she’d have, and knew that it would be a struggle. But he also knew her, knew that she would pull through and get back on her feet. 

Akane nodded, tears threatening to break loose from their ducts behind her eyes. It reminded her of when she had first gone off to college, and of when her sister had moved to New York. 

Jack had been her anchor through all of this. He always answered when she called out, no matter how late at night it was, and always helped her through her nightmares. 

“I can’t put into words how amazing you’ll be and the things you’ll do,” the former con-man continued. “You’re going to have such amazing adventures, Akane, and you’re going to be brilliant. If you ever need me, please,  _ please, _ don’t hesitate to call me. I’ll always be here for you Akane,” Jack finished, holding onto the brunette just a little bit tighter. Akane’s tears were flowing freely by now, her emotions getting the best of her yet again. 

“Thank you, Jack. For everything,” Akane answered back, her voice slightly cracking as she spoke. Jack nodded and released the girl before putting a smile on his face, trying to put a better mood on the occasion. Akane wiped her eyes, hating that she was crying again.

“Now come on, smile!” Jack exclaimed. He didn’t continue until Akane had done as requested. “There it is! We can’t let you leave on such a sad note, Princess! Not when you’re about to take on the world. Once you get in that truck I want you to strive to be the best you can be, okay? No matter what it takes.” 

Akane nodded before stepping away, if she wasn’t so depressed, nervous, and overall just emotional, she would have laughed at the things Jack was saying; it wasn’t normally like him to do it. She waved to Tosh and Suzie, whom she could see in the SUV, and smiled at them. She then turned back to Jack and stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Bye Jack,” she said, giving him a small smile. Jack smiled back, something in his eyes softening as he did so. 

“See you later Princess.”

Akane smiled again before she got in the truck, taking a deep breath after she closed the door behind her. She put her seat belt on and turned on the GPS, her destination already programed into it. As she adjusted her mirrors, she noticed Jack in the rear-view slowly waving at her. Smiling to herself, Akane started the engine and began to drive away, the robotic voice telling her she had 300 feet until she had to turn onto the main road. 

She didn’t see Jack’s face drop as she pulled away, the way his hand slowly stopped waving. He knew what she’d get into once she met the Doctor, and there was nothing he could do to stop it, it had already happened for him. Akane had a long road ahead of her, one that he didn’t know if she would regret. But what had been done was done, and there was no changing it now, he could only offer up one phrase of sympathy;

“I’m so sorry, Princess.”


	5. Well That's New

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akane gets a surprise visitor.

It had been a long drive for Akane Honda, and to say she was tired would be an understatement. Driving was not particularly hard for her, but when she had to keep focus so that she would stay on the left side of the road, translate kilometers per hour to miles per hour in her head, and also adjust to the steering wheel being on the other side of the truck, it was a just a little bit overwhelming for her. The first thing she wanted to do when she finally pulled up to her new apartment, or ‘flat’ as the British called it; though she’d keep her American terms thank you very much, was go to bed. But that would require having a bed to sleep in, which would require unloading the bed from the rental truck, and her pillows, and her blankets and sheets, and anything else she needed. 

Oh. She hadn’t thought of that. How was she supposed to move her furniture in without anyone else’s help? She couldn’t move a couch, a bed frame, mattress, chairs and other things up two flights of stairs by herself; she would get hurt!

Akane stood at the back of the rental truck, the back door of it remained closed as she glared at it. The furniture inside seemed to taunt her as she knew there was no way she could carry it. She could easily carry up the boxes, and if she set them along the walls she could make room for the bigger furniture. She had an idea of where she wanted everything to go, but getting everything there was another story. Maybe there were neighbors that could help? Of course, that would require explaining how she’d packed up and moved without bringing anybody to help. That would be embarrassing. Still, if it needed to be done then-

“That’s an awfully troubled face you have on there, Darling,” said a female voice. Akane knew it was female, and vaguely recalled the voice from somewhere, though she couldn’t quite place it. 

Turning around, Akane gasped as she laid eyes upon the new figure. “Y-Y-You’re…” she stuttered out; the ability to form words having somehow vanished from her brain as she stood in shock, her eyes almost comically widened. 

A woman stood before her, her gravity-defying bushy hair bouncing as she moved. She wore a light, tan coat over her white blouse, and Akane could spot a gun holster on the waist of her skinny jeans. Her brown boots, of course, had a small heel on them.

River Song frowned as she looked at Akane. “What? I’m not bleeding anywhere am I?” she asked, checking herself over for any cuts she hadn’t noticed. Not spotting any nor seeing any bloodstains, River’s frown deepened. Akane stood before her, almost defensively, gripping the back of the moving truck. Akane’s mouth was open, almost as wide as her eyes were. River could’ve laughed at how much her face resembled a fish had she not been so worried over the other woman. She took a step forward and asked, “Akane, are you alright?”

“I-I, you,” Akane began, again stammering as she tried to formulate her thoughts into a coherent sentence. “How do you know my name?”

“What?” River asked bewilderedly, her eyes narrowing.”What do you mean ‘How do I know your-’ oh.” River blinked, what was currently happening finally clicking into place. “You’re so young. Granted, it’s hard to tell with you, but this is the youngest I’ve ever seen you. You haven’t met me yet, have you Darling?” she slightly rambled, causing Akane to shake her head, her defensive position still remaining. River smiled, a small laugh leaving her lips. “I wondered when this was going to happen. Our timelines tend to go all over the place. Now then, let’s do a proper introduction,” she continued, a smile on her face the entire time. Had she not known better, Akane would’ve almost felt belittled. She only hesitantly nodded, however, still trying to grasp what was currently happening. 

It had been bad enough when she’d first met Jack, Tosh, and Suzie. Now that it was River, a woman Akane widely looked up to in terms of confidence, it was like meeting a movie star. She’d thought she had a grip on what was happening since she came here, that this was all real; but now it was like a dream again, like it wasn’t really happening. Still though, at least she wasn’t crying this time. 

“My name is Doctor River Song, also known as Melody Pond. And you are?” River asked, putting out her hand for a handshake. Akane slowly took River’s hand, this would be the first time she’d introduced herself as her alias to a main character. 

“Akane Honda,” she finally breathed out. 

“A pleasure to meet you,” River responded, a smile on her face. Akane nodded back. “Now, how this usually works is we meet, compare timelines, and go through with whatever it is that needs to be done. Now, where’s your diary?” 

Akane’s eyes narrowed in confusion, she didn’t have one. “I, I don’t,” she started, slightly shaking her head. 

“Oh dear,” River sighed, frowning as she shifted her weight. “You don’t even have it yet? This must be extremely early for you. How long have you been here?” 

Okay, this was a simple question. She could answer this. She didn’t really know what exactly was going on, but Akane could answer this. “About a month,” she responded. 

River’s eyes widened. “A month? You’ve only been in London for a month?” she gawked. 

Akane shook her head. “No, I just got here. London, I mean. I’ve been in Cardiff for the past month,” Akane corrected. How long did River think she’d been here? How long was she supposed to have been here? And how did River even know her?

River stared at Akane, seemingly lost for words. “...Oh dear me, I never imagined you’d be  _ this  _ early. Though that would explain the rental lorry.”

“Why are you here?” Akane blurted out. It wasn’t like she had called for River. She had no way to contact her! Plus, she hadn’t expected that River would actually  _ know  _ her. There was no way that Akane would last with the Doctor up until Amy and Rory’s time with him. So what the fuck was going on?

Recovering from her shock, River forced a smile and put her hands on her hips. Dear Lord this girl really didn’t know  _ anything _ . This was truly square one, River would have to teach her everything. “Well, a little birdie told me that you’d be needing help,” the time traveller decided to coyly answer, almost seeming to laugh at some sort of inside joke. “I didn’t think it would be help moving, but, well, you never know with time travel.”

“Wait, hold up. So somebody just told you that I needed help and you just came over like that? No questions asked?” Akane queried, her suspicion rising. There was no way in hell that whatever she came here to do was so convoluted that  _ the  _ River Song knew her and would come rushing to help out of nowhere. She threw her hands up and started to slightly pace as she spoke. “And how did you even know where I was? Who I am, what I look like? What the fuck is going on?”

River’s eyes widened at the small outburst, she’d witnessed Akane’s temper before and knew that if she didn’t try to smooth things out now it would get a lot worse. This wasn’t even anger though, not true anger. It was more of a mix of panic and frustration. “Akane, you and I can talk, Darling, but not out here. We can go upstairs and talk, alright?”

The brunette scowled as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Fine, whatever. Just let me lock up the truck,” Akane dismissed, walking back to the truck door as she took the keys out of her pocket. 

“Actually,” River called out, causing the other woman to stop and turn towards her, her eyebrow lifted in question. “Let’s bring everything up first, it won’t get done otherwise and the talk might take a while,” the time traveller explained, also walking over to the back of the moving truck. 

Akane glanced over at River before sighing, she knew that she was right. And River was offering her help, it was definitely better than bugging one of her new neighbors for help. At least she knew that River would at least be nice with her stuff. 

“Okay,” the American answered, shoving her hands in her pockets. “You’re right. The furniture is first, it got put in last. And then all of the boxes are labeled and I can show you which room is which when we get up.” 

River smiled and opened up the bed of the truck in response. A long whistle was let out at the amount of things that Akane had managed to fit into the small moving truck. “Got enough things?” she jokingly asked. 

Akane rolled her eyes, “Well I have to pretty much start my life over, furnishing a house and getting the essentials is part of that.”

With that being said, the two women began to unpack the truck. They dragged the couch, chairs, kitchen table and chairs, and bureaus and other furniture pieces and awkwardly maneuvered them up to the third floor where her apartment was. Next came the boxes; although some were pretty heavy, they were lighter than the pieces of furniture and were easier to carry up. Up and down the stairs the girls went, carrying boxes into the apartment. Akane quickly began to regret not getting an apartment with an elevator as she climbed up and down the stairs for the eleventh time. When the last box was finally up, Akane and River took a moment to flop down onto the couch, trying to relax and cool off after the major workout they’d just had. 

Akane could feel the sweat everywhere on her body, even though London was much cooler compared to her native Massachusetts. She knew she’d need a shower after this, but then she’d have to find which box she’d put the shampoo and conditioner and stuff in and at this point she couldn’t remember if it was in a box of toiletries or if she had stuffed it in last minute with the box of cleaning supplies.  _ A little at a time, _ she could hear her mother say in her head.  _ Just do a little at a time;  _ her mother. God, how she missed her, her voice, her hugs, her advice, the smell of her perfume that she put on before work, everything about her. Akane missed her entire family. But right now, more than anything, she wanted to be able to hug her mother, to just know that everything would be okay. But it wasn’t, and she couldn’t do that.

Begrudgingly, the brunette lifted her head to glance over at River, who also had her head back on the top of the sofa as she relaxed for a moment. “Do you want any water?” she asked, the thought suddenly coming to mind. 

River hummed for a moment before answering with a “That would be lovely, Darling.”

Akane’s eyebrows furrowed in response, River had called her that earlier as well. Why was that? Not wanting to start anything as she was too tired, Akane pushed the thought aside for the moment; she could deal with it later. She pushed herself up from the couch, it currently resided in the middle on her living room amongst a bunch of boxes, and headed through the hall towards the kitchen. An unopened box of glasses, plates, and silverware was on the counter beside the sink, but Akane went for the case of water bottles next to it. They weren’t cold, but they would be better than nothing. 

She grabbed two water bottles then headed back towards the living room, glancing about the apartment as she did so. All of the walls in it were white and all of the floors, minus the carpeted living room, were wooden. She already had paint colors in mind for at least her bedroom and the living room, and the rest she could decide upon later. The front door of her apartment opened up into the kitchen, where the table and chairs were already in place along the same wall as the door, and her bedroom was off of the kitchen. Next to her bedroom was the hall, which held the bathroom, and led to the living room and the other bedroom which Akane hadn’t decided what to do with yet. It could simply be kept as a storage space, but she also didn’t have too many things that didn’t have specific spots already. She supposed she could turn it into a guest room, but who would use it? And how much would she ever use her apartment once she started travelling with the Doctor? What was she even supposed to  _ do _ with the Doctor? Was there some big event that she was supposed to change? Satellite 5? Doomsday? The Year That Never Was? Maybe she could ask River. 

“So why are you here?” Akane asked, much calmer this time around. The shock of River’s presence had worn off, and while Akane still couldn’t believe that she was here, she only wanted answers more than anything. She handed River a water bottle as she sat down. 

“Because you and I know each other very well, and you called.” River smiled a tight-lipped smile as she spoke and Akane knew that there must be more to what she had said. 

“But I  _ didn’t  _ call,” Akane countered with a wave of her hands. “You just kind of, showed up outta nowhere.”

River laughed, “That tends to be what I what I do.” She looked down for a moment before speaking again, choosing her words carefully. “Someone told me that you’d need my help right about now, Darling.”

“And again with the ‘Darling,’” Akane quipped, rolling her eyes exasperatedly. “Why do you keep calling me that? And how do you even  _ know _ me? I mean, you’re all the way with the bow-tie Doctor and if Jack’s forcing me to go here is telling me anything then I am definitely  _ not _ there and there’s probably  _ no  _ fucking way that I’ll last that long.” Akane stood up to pace as she spoke, unable to satisfy her need for movement with just hand motions. “And how close are we for you to be calling me ‘Darling?’ I mean, are we like dating something? Cuz I mean you’re hot and all and I have no problems with girls but you’re, well,  _ you. _ You’re all badass and smart and clever and I mean I’m kinda smart and I can figure stuff out but  _ nowhere  _ near the level you’re on and  _ why the Hell are you laughing?” _ Akane ranted, bubbling up nearly anything that came to mind. She’d locked up away some of the insecurity she’d felt around the Torchwood team, chalking it up to simply being out of her depth. But with River here now, she felt completely inferior. 

River however, had found the other woman’s rant and/or pity party, she wasn’t quite sure which it was at this point, to be entirely amusing and had burst out laughing. She had tried to hide her giggles behind her water bottle but this; this was too much. She set her bottle down on the small open space on the coffee table not covered by boxes so as not to spill it. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” River managed to get out, her laughter dying down to giggles. “That was absolutely hilarious; you are almost never like this. You’re so flustered and panicked and confused. And you’re so  _ young _ . Is it my birthday?”

“Is it your birth-” Akane started, her hands flying up in the air as she tried to wrap her head around what River had just said. “I’m trying to have an actual conversation, River! Could you at least  _ try _ to participate?!”

“Alright, alright; I apologize,” River agreed, calming herself down as she sat up a little straighter. Akane muttered a quiet ‘Thank you’ as she settled her hands on her hips. “But it’s just so rare to see you like this, I couldn’t help myself. No, we are not dating; I’ve just always called you ‘Darling;’ you’ll see why in due time. We know each other because of events that happen in the future for you, specifically because of my birth and my youth; I’m sure you know about it?” River explained, pausing to get Akane’s confirmation. The girl nodded, her eyebrows furrowing as she sat on the edge of the recliner to listen. “For the spoiler-free version, you and I get to know each other very well, and call upon each other whenever we need help. That being said, I should give you my phone number so that you  _ can _ call me. It’ll go straight through to my Vortex Manipulator so I’ll be sure to see it.”

“Um, yeah, sure,” Akane replied weakly, her eyes wide in surprise. Had she  _ actually _ just gotten information out of the time traveller? River was absolutely elusive in the show and even more so in real life. Said woman, however, had already gotten a pen and notepad out of her jacket pocket and had proceeded to scribble her phone number down upon it. She handed the paper to Akane, who hesitantly took it. The numbers had a definite curve to them, Akane noticed, as if River had wanted to write in cursive but couldn’t with the numbers. 

“Now then,” River stated, standing up after she had handed Akane the small piece of paper. Akane glanced up at River, her attention pulled from the phone number she had been studying. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’ll finish unpacking tomorrow?”

Akane frowned; it was still too weird for her. Sure, River had explained  _ why _ they knew each other, but she hadn’t quite explained how well they knew each other. “Um, yeah. Why?”

“Well, we’ve got everything in the apartment now, including the boxes, and you seem absolutely knackered,” commented River. Knackered, knackered. That meant tired right? Or did it mean drunk? Either way, it meant that Akane was not up to doing anything, which was 100% correct. “I am too but that’s beside the point. I don’t think it would be the right time to request to use your couch; it’s too early for you, yeah?”

“I, um, yeah. I think. Sorry,” Akane stuttered. This whole thing was too confusing for her; River kept firing off things that should make sense, but they didn’t. It was like there was an entire side to something, Akane wasn’t sure what, that she didn’t know about even though River did. And the woman just kept on referring back to it time and time again but it  _ still _ didn’t make sense because she still didn’t know what the Hell River was referring to. Logically, it was probably the future version of herself, Akane figured, but what did that exactly mean. How far in the future? What did she do? Why were she and River so close? What was she even here for?

“Well, I suppose it’s time for me to leave then,” the half-Time Lord finalized. She started to program her Vortex Manipulator to wherever it was that she planned to go. 

“No, but wait!” Akane exclaimed. She still had questions! River couldn’t leave yet! Said woman looked up from her Vortex Manipulator, although it was really down since Akane was still sitting, and paused in her programming. “What am I supposed to do? Why did I get pulled here? You said it yourself; you know me in the future, so you’ve gotta know why!”

River stayed still for a moment, she had not quite expected those questions yet. She’d hoped to leave before Akane could think of them. She sighed however, knowing that now it was inevitable. “Oh, tsk tsk, Darling. Those are Spoilers! You don’t want to ruin all the fun do you?” she smiled, purposely avoiding the subject. Before Akane could question her any further, River hit a button on her manipulator. With a loud ‘Ta ta!’ the woman was gone. 

“Wait, River!” Akane exclaimed on impulse. She couldn’t just leave! She had questions for her and- Wait. “Did you just ‘Spoiler’ me?!”


	6. Retail

“Miss, do you know where the women’s bathing suit department is?”

“It's around the corner, across from the register, sorry, uh, till.”

“Excuse me ma’am, do you carry this in a size 18?”

“I can go check in the back if you’d like.” 

“Miss, where are the dressing rooms?”

“They’re in the corner there, under the sign.” 

So went many of the conversations the universe-hopper now had in her everyday life. Akane had slowly been learning British slang and, as a necessity to do well in her job, had begun using it. She’d gotten a job at Henrik’s within the first couple days of being there, her resumé proving her to be overqualified. But her qualification had not prepared her for all of this. It had not prepared her for the all the people, all the questions (most having completely obvious answers), and all the constant moving around, looking for things, doubling back around because now another person wanted the same exact thing. She had never worked retail before; the closest she came to it was waitressing but it was a completely different routine than retail. 

It would be worth it, however, Akane knew. All she had to do was stick it out until the Doctor arrived, until she’d be able to board the TARDIS with him and Rose and travel through space and time; God, that still sounded surreal. 

Rose was in the store too of course. The blonde worked the dressing rooms, putting back items people did not want and directing them to empty stalls. Akane, however, was a cashier. Well, a junior cashier. The woman in charge of the register, Ellie, refused to sign her training document to say that she was done with it. Instead, Akane would man the register when Ellie went on her smoke break or go back and forth between the clothing aisles to help customers.

_ Idiotic customers, _ Akane thought as she helped a man find what he was looking for. It was literally five feet away from him and he hadn’t seen it. Literally five feet. She could grab some rulers from the back room and measure it out and it would be 5 feet. 

Her condescending thoughts did not show on her face, however, as the girl had quickly relearned the art of putting on a professional mask in front of customers. She smiled to the man, giving him a polite ‘You’re welcome’ as he went on his way. She didn’t let her smile drop until she was safely in the dressing room corner, looking for some companionship from Rose. Her job quickly got boring, Akane learned, dealing with the same old questions day in and day out. It didn’t help either that she knew she wouldn’t hold the job for long. 

But today felt different; today felt like something was going to happen. It was similar to the feeling one would get when there was a school field trip the next day, or they were leaving for vacation. Only this time Akane didn’t know what was going to happen, only that something felt off.

Rose smiled as she took notice of the tired look on the brunette’s face; it was only just before noon and the newbie was already set to go home. “You look like you’re having fun,” she commented, leaning on the counter she was stationed behind. It was a slower day for the store; the plaza in front was entirely busy, but it was just too nice out for people to go shopping much. The amount of people that went in to try things in the dressing rooms was even less than the small amount that came into the store. 

“The nerve of some people,” Akane grumpily grumbled as she made her way over to the counter. “He didn’t even give me a proper ‘Thank you!’” she exclaimed upon Rose’s eye roll. 

“The joys of customer service,” Rose replied sarcastically, leaning her head on her hand. “You get used to it honestly, though it probably didn’t help that you’re American.”

“And I  _ still _ don’t get what’s so bad about that!” the brunette continued, leaning against the opposite side of the counter Rose was leaning on. “Like, I know my country’s done some pretty shitty stuff, and I don’t condone most of what they’ve done, but why take it out on me? A little, lone, Average Joe?”

“‘Average Joe?’” Rose queried, scrunching her nose up in confusion. Akane sighed, this wasn’t the first time she’d had to explain what was to her a common phrase. 

“It’s like, uh, common man basically. I’m not entirely sure where the phrase came from,” she explained while rubbing the back of her head.

“Well,” Rose started, grabbing a few shirts off of the rack beside her. “Maybe it’s because you use such foreign phrases." 

This time it was Akane's turn to roll her eyes as she took Rose’s teasing. The blonde had already begun to walk away to put the shirts back in their place. "It's not my fault that America uses better slang!” she jokingly called back, only slightly hearing Rose laugh before she too went back to work. 

The day had been so-fucking-slow in Akane’s opinion; it had only been 1 o’clock when she started craving a coffee to keep herself awake. Thankfully, Rose had not taken her lunch break yet and had been able to procure the brunette one on her way back. But, now it was nearing 7 o’clock and the store was just about to close. 

Akane’s “off” feeling returned again as the workers began to collect their belongings and head towards the door; everything else had been packed away and locked for the night. It was almost like déjà vu when she fell in line behind Rose, the security guard holding up the lottery money and shaking it in the blonde’s face before she could leave. The blonde rolled her eyes as she took the bag, turning around to head towards the elevator. 

This was it, Akane realized. This was when it all started, when Rose met the Doctor. Acting on pure instinct, Akane quickly intercepted Rose before she could get in the elevator. “Why don’t I go down with you Rose,” Akane suggested, a small, nervous smile on her face. “Wilson could always use a little extra company.” 

Rose smiled as she waited for the elevator to come back up. “Finally catching on are you?” she asked. 

Akane frowned as Rose stepped into the elevator in front of them; what was she talking about? “What do you mean? Catching onto what?” she queried as she also got in. Rose hit the ‘Basement’ button before turning her attention back to the newer employee. 

“To the fact that Wilson fancies you!” she exclaimed, a grin on her face. 

Akane groaned, her shoulders sagging as she caught on to what Rose was talking about. “Oh, don’t start with that again, Rose,” she complained. “He is  _ so _ not into me.”

“And I’m telling you he is!” the blonde quickly interjected. “You should see his face whenever you walk in the room” 

Whatever the girl had been about to say got cut off by the ‘ping!’ of the elevator as its doors opened. Akane quickly took advantage of this and grabbed the bag of money out of Rose’s hands; she did not want to talk about this with Rose, especially now that Wilson was dead. But Rose didn’t know that yet, Akane remembered, so she had to put up an act. 

“Wilson!” she called out as she practically ran out of the elevator. “Wilson we’ve got the lottery money!”

Rose rolled her eyes and followed Akane out of the lift; she’d talk sense into that girl one of these days. “Wilson are you there?” she called out a few seconds later. The man hadn’t answered them like he usually did, but if he had music on like he did sometimes then he wouldn’t be able to hear them at all. 

The two girls strolled over to the blue door that marked Wilson’s office, Akane trying the handle before they realized that it was locked. Rose rapped on the door before calling out, “Wilson, we can’t hang about ‘cos they’re closing the shop.” 

When the man didn’t answer again, Akane called his name. Instead of silence this time around, a noise came from the storage room behind the two and they both turned towards it. 

Akane frowned at the sound; they had never actually shown what had made it, be it the living plastic or the Doctor himself. 

“Hello?” Rose called as she stepped towards the door, a frown also on her face. She gained more confidence as she moved forward; her back going straighter and her voice coming out stronger. It was probably just Wilson messing about. “Hello, Wilson, it’s Rose and Akane! Hello? Wilson?”

Akane had begun to follow Rose towards the storage room; she wasn’t actually scared per se, as she knew the Doctor would get them out, but she was nervous to get it all started. What would he be like in real life? What would the TARDIS be like? What was her role in all of this?

That was the major thing she had been questioning; her role. One idea was that she was to change what happened on Platform 5. But how? Another had been to change Doomsday, which, to be honest, she actually did have a couple of ideas for. And another idea was to simply save as many people as possible. That was the right thing to do, right?

Rose pushed open the storage room door, moving for the light switch as she saw how dark the room was. “Wilson!” Akane called when the lights came on. “C’mon! We’d like to leave sometime today!”  

The two stood by the storage room door, many mannequins dressed in clothing and boxes of clothes and shoes and other things scattered everywhere. They moved deeper into the room, still looking for the chief electrician. 

“Wilson!” Rose tried again, but at this point it was practically useless. If he was there he would’ve heard them by now. As they headed for another door in the middle of the wall on their right, the door the girls had come in through slammed shut with a metallic clang; Akane just barely keeping herself from flinching as both girls turned towards the new sound. 

The blonde rushed back to the double doors, quickly pulling on the handles as soon as she was in reach. The doors remained closed, however, even when Akane came up to pull on them too. She knew it was useless, but would it really hurt to try?

Their escape attempt was interrupted by another sound, this one sounding like someone, or something, had tripped and knocked several items over. “Is there someone muckin’ about?” Rose called out nervously, having given up on the door ever opening and instead focusing on the new presence in the room. 

“Who is it?” Akane added when they had walked further into the room. “Who’s there?” 

She missed the mannequin head behind her turn towards them, but she heard it creak as it began to move out from behind the I-beam. Both she and Rose turned towards the mannequin as it took a few shaky steps out, as if just learning how to walk. They took small steps backwards, their eyes shifting between the walking mannequin in front of them and the mannequin behind it coming to life.  

“You’ve got me then, very funny,” Rose tried to reason, shakily pointing at the walking mannequin. Its plaid shirt was open, and it moved very much like a robot would. “Right I’ve got the joke!” she yelled out as still more mannequins came to life. “Who’s idea was this?!”

Akane had stayed silent, however, as she and Rose both backed away from the moving dolls. There was nothing they could do, nothing they could say to stop them; and she wasn’t sure that she wanted to. These moving, life-sized display dummies meant that the Doctor would turn up, and there was no use fighting what was happening if that was going to happen. At least not now. 

“Is it Derek’s?” Rose continued, thinly grasping at any idea that could explain what was going on as she quickly became freaked out. The mannequins were moving. Life-sized, display dolls were moving on their own; she couldn’t even see any wires. This had to be Derek’s doing; he played pranks on them all the time! And he had enough buddies in school with him to get this together. “Is it? Derek is this you?”

More and more display dolls came to life, the sheer number of dolls advancing upon them was enough to back Akane and Rose up against a pipe that was in front of a wall. Neither of them could explain what was going on. Well, actually, Akane could but it would’ve taken way too long and would’ve messed up what was going on to do so. But both knew that whatever was behind these dolls moving was not good and that something was going to happen to them. 

The Auton in front of the girls raised its arm, causing Akane to brace herself against the cold metal behind her head. It was now, it had to happen now. Where was he? Where was the Doctor?

And then there was a hand in hers, a big, man’s hand. Akane opened her eyes and looked to her left, when had she closed them? There was the 9th Doctor in front of her in all of his glory; short hair, leather jacket and all. He only whispered one word to the girls before taking off.

“Run.”


	7. I'm Not Apologizing For the Puns

Akane could hear the pressure releasing from a pipe as steam billowed from it. The Doctor had grabbed her hand just in time before pulling on her arm to drag her along; it was all she could do to quickly reach for Rose behind her. And then all three were running down a corridor while the mannequins, Autons, Akane reminded herself, stiffly followed behind. More Autons were swinging their arms through the bars of several other storage spaces, but the Doctor kept running and so did Akane and Rose. 

Akane was barely containing her grin as they went along, even as they were pulled down the corridor and onto an elevator. She was with the Doctor! He was right there in front of her! Big ears, leather jacket and all. The squeal that had been building up inside the girl quickly manifested into a yelp as she and Rose were practically thrown against the wall of the elevator; the Doctor needed both his hands to tug off the arm of the Auton trying to get into the elevator. Each tug that he made caused the elevator to jolt just a little bit, her and Rose had to hold onto a bar on the wall to steady themselves. 

Finally though, the Doctor ripped the arm off of the Auton and the elevator took off, it’s doors now successfully able to close. Rose stared at it and the Doctor in disgust. Who was this man? What was he doing down there?

“You pulled his arm off,” she commented.

“Yup,” the Doctor confirmed. “Plastic.” He tossed the arm to the girls to show them and Akane caught it first before passing it off to Rose. Didn’t the arm come back to life at some point? 

“Very clever, nice trick,” Rose praised sarcastically. “Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?”

“They can’t be,” Akane countered. “He just ripped one of their arms off!”

“Oh, you’re American!” the Doctor exclaimed, surprised on the new finding. He uncrossed his arms to point at the universe hopper. “And good. Keep thinking like that and you just might get through this.” Akane’s eyebrows shot up; she would’ve taken a step back had it not been for the wall behind her. He had been much easier to follow on screen, but the way he kept jumping tabs, going to different things like he’d just done was so confusing. 

The man’s eyes narrowed as he swung his head over to look at Rose, who was still holding the plastic arm, re-crossing his own arms as he did so. His posture was stiff, either like he wasn’t used to dealing with people or like he was superior to them; Akane couldn’t tell which it was. “Why would they be students?” he asked, staring at the blonde girl. He was testing her out, Akane knew. Trying to gauge what kind of person she was based on her response.

“I don’t know,” Rose answered after a second, she hadn’t really thought about why she said ‘students.’ It had just made sense at the time. 

“Well you said it. Why students?” he asked, turning back to watch the elevator doors.

“‘Cuz… To get that many people dressed up and acting silly, they got to be students,” the blonde rationalized. It did actually make sense in Akane’s mind, even though she knew that that was not what had happened. If there were enough people that were as resourceful in costume making like she and her friends were, she could easily see students doing something like that given that there were enough people. Though how they would’ve gotten into a store like Hendrik’s she didn’t know.

“That makes sense. Well done,” the Doctor smiled, turning around to look at her. 

Rose smiled as well, though a little warily. “Thanks.”

“They’re not students,” he dismissed immediately, again turning to watch the doors. 

“Whoever they are, when Wilson finds them he’s going to call the police.”

“Who’s Wilson?”

“Chief electrician,” Akane offered. Here she was, meeting the Doctor for the first time and she’d barely said a word the entire conversation. Even in front of her hero her conversation skills were nill.

“Wilson’s dead.”

Rose’s face fell at the Doctor’s news, the elevator doors opening as the elevator landed with a soft ‘bing’ from the speakers overhead. He quickly walked out, reaching into his jacket for a small, silver tube. Rose followed angrily, the plastic arm still in hand.

“That’s not funny!” she insisted. “That’s sick!”

“Hold on. Mind your eyes,” the Doctor commented, grabbing Rose’s shoulders and pushing her back. Akane followed by going to stand behind Rose, she did grin this time as she caught sight of the tube; it was the sonic screwdriver! Of course, she had her own copy of it back home, as well as Eleven’s. Her cousin had the Master’s laser screwdriver and, for whatever reason, a Doctor Who pizza cutter. 

“I’ve had enough of this now!” Rose shouted as she got no explanation from the man in front of her. Instead, the Doctor used his screwdriver to disable the elevator with a loud and spark-filled ‘bang!’ 

The Doctor walked past both of the girls, clearly having a mission to follow in his head. Akane quickly decided to follow, unconsciously stealing some of Rose’s questions as she did so. “So who were those things downstairs? And who are you? How’d you know we were down there?” she asked. She saw Rose come up on the other side of her, a scowl still on the other girl’s face. 

“They’re made of plastic. Living, plastic creatures,” he began to answer as they turned a corner. “They’re being controlled by a relay device in the roof which would be a great big problem if I didn’t have this.” The Doctor paused to pull a bomb out of his jacket, several beeps and wires coming out of it. “So, I’m going to go up there and blow them up,” he reached for the fire doors and opened them, corralling the girls through but not going through himself. “And I might well die in the process, but don’t worry about me. No, you go home. Go on! Go and have your lovely beans on toast. Or, eggs on toast since you’re American. Don’t tell anyone about this because if you do you’ll get them killed.” 

Then he swung the door shut. 

Akane and Rose stood there for a second, completely dumbfounded at what had just happened, although for very different reasons, before looking at each other. Rose began to turn away, ready to go home and put whatever had just happened behind her when the door opened again. Both girls jumped and looked at the Doctor again as he was back in the doorway.

“I’m the Doctor by the way, what’re your names?” he asked, the bomb still ticking away in his hand. 

“Rose.”

“Akane.”

“Nice to meet you Rose, Akane,” he grinned before holding the bomb up. “Run for your lives!” he exclaimed, shutting the door again as he prepared to run up to the roof. 

And so they did. With one, quick, bewildered look at each other, the girls decided to run down the street. They didn’t exactly know what was going on, well, one of them did but Rose didn’t know that, but whatever the Doctor was actually doing, there was a bomb about to go off inside Hendrik’s and neither girl wanted to be within the blast radius. They almost got hit by a car on the way, but they made it across the street in time for the bomb to go off; even from there they could feel the heat of the fire. Screams immediately broke out as glass began to rain down on the surrounding sidewalks, cars stopping in the middle of the road to look at what had just happened.

Akane tensed up and sucked a deep breath in at the loud noise, but Rose was already pulling on her arm and dragging her down the street. She failed to notice the blue-police box as they passed it, her senses too overwhelmed with everything to take in anything else. All she wanted to do was run, every time this happened she wanted to run, and this time she could. 

Jackie Tyler threw open the door with a cry of ‘Rose!’ before the blonde could even take her keys out, scooping up her daughter as soon as she had the chance to. Akane was next. Even though she’d barely been there a month, Jackie had seemed to take motherly ownership of her, believing that she should take care of the girl since her parents were still ‘across the pond’ as Akane had put it. 

“Oh thank goodness you two are alright!” she cried, going back to hugging Rose. “I was losing my mind trying to figure out what happened to you! You could’ve been dead for all I knew!” 

“We’re alright Mum,” Rose softly laughed. For whatever the Hell had just happened, her Mum was still there worrying about her. Not everything in the world was going crazy today. “Honest. We weren’t even in the shop, we were outside when it happened.”

“Still, you two could’ve been killed,” Jackie insisted. “C’mon. In you go. I’ll get the kettle going. You want coffee Akane?”

“Er, if you wouldn’t mind, yeah.”

“Nonsense, sweetheart,” Jackie waved off, going into the kitchen to prepare drinks for all three of them, prattling on about how worried she’d been as she went. 

It was almost an hour later when Mickey burst through the door, quickly spotting Rose sitting on the couch and running over. Jackie had gone back to the kitchen as he came in, on the phone with another of the family’s friends and making another thing of tea. 

“I’ve been phonin’ your mobile,” he said worriedly. “You could’ve been dead. It’s on the news and everything. I can’t believe that your shop went up!”

Akane as glad that she had chosen to sit on the other couch in the living room when Mickey quickly settled in the spot next to Rose so that he could hug her. “I’m all right, honestly, I’m fine! Don’t make a fuss!” the blonde softly exclaimed, tired from the day’s extraordinary events. 

“Well what happened?”

“I don’t know!” 

Akane smiled at the interaction; she’d always liked Rose and Mickey as a couple. Sure, he’d been kinda wimpy in the beginning, but not everyone was cut out for battling alien invasions. It made her think of her most recent ex-girlfriend; she and Mickey would’ve gotten along. Both loved sports and were complete worry warts, but were extremely loving all the same. Of course, Akane’s ex-girlfriend was back in her own universe, just like most everyone else the girl knew. She didn’t have anyone to fret over her like Jackie and Mickey did for Rose, well except maybe Jack but she still didn’t know what the deal with him was. He called to check up on her every few days or so, but at least once a week. She was grateful for it, of course, he was the only one who really knew anything about what she was dealing with, but she was still confused on how he knew her in the first place, on how close he seemed to be with her if their exchanges were any indication. 

‘Speak of the devil,’ Akane thought as her phone began to ring. Only three people had her number, and one of them was right in front of her. But this was Jack’s ringtone, jokingly set as “Moonlight Serenade.” He had gotten her a phone from this time period as well, the distance between the technology and it’s capabilities was too great to let her keep using the same one. It was just a regular flip phone from Motorola, but it would help her to fit in better. 

“Hello?” she answered, getting up off of the sofa and going into the hallway by Jackie’s room.

“Hey. You alright, Princess? I just saw the news,” Jack greeted. She could practically see him sitting at his desk in Torchwood, his feet propped up on it as he held the phone to his ear.

“Yeah, no. I’m fine. We were outside when it happened. We’re okay,” Akane assured, pacing the hallway as she did. She always did that on the phone, she remembered reading somewhere about how it was the brain’s way of making up for the lack of matching visual to accompany the sound, but she wasn’t completely sure. All she knew was that she could never stay still. 

“We?” he questioned.

“Rose and I. We were on our way back from work, I was just walking her to the corner like usual when it suddenly just blew up. I have no idea what happened,” she lied. 

“What about the apartment? Is it okay?”

“I-” Akane paused, her apartment had completely slipped her mind throughout all of this. It was right next to Henrik’s top floor, right by the roof. If it wasn’t on fire by now it would’ve at least been severely damaged. “I don’t know. I hadn’t even thought about it until just now.” 

“I’ll look into it. Where are you now?”

“Thanks Jack. I’m at Rose’s. I think I’m gonna end up staying the night.”

“No problem. Hey, Princess-”

“Yeah?”

“It’s him isn’t it?” 

Akane laughed. “Was I that bad?”

“No actually. Which is honestly worrying,” Jack answered, causing Akane to laugh again, though she didn’t explain why she could lie so well. “No, the store name sounds familiar. That’s all.”

“Well yeah, it is, just to answer your question,” she answered teasingly, a grin planting itself on her face. Mickey walked by at that moment, the fake arm in hand. He waved at Akane with it to which she waved back, her grin staying on her face.

Jack was quiet for a moment after that, and Akane could tell by what he said next that he had been smiling. “You’re going to do great, Princess.”

Akane’s grin softened into a smile at that. She did have one person who cared for her, whatever way it was that they knew each other like they did. “Thanks, Jack.” 

“You’re welcome kid. Now remember; keep your head up and no matter what, don’t give up.”

“Did you try to make that rhyme?” the brunette teasingly questioned, scrunching up her nose as she stopped pacing and leaned against the nearest wall.

“ _ Akane. _ ”

“All right, all right. I got it; keep my head up.”

“Good girl.” 

“Listen, I’ll talk to you later. Alright?”

“Alright. Talk to you later, Princess.”

“See ya.” And with that, Akane snapped her phone shut and walked back into the living room. Her and Rose stayed up for another hour or so, talking to each other and to Jackie before going to bed. Both girls wanted to talk about what had just happened, but with Jackie flitting in and out of rooms it was hard to do so. 

Jack did end up sending her a text near 10 o’clock saying that her apartment had been ruined beyond repair, so all in all, Akane’s night had been fan-fucking-tastic. 

Akane slept through Rose’s alarm the next morning. She had fallen asleep on the couch the night before like she usually did when she slept over, and 7:30 was way too early to wake up at when she didn’t have to work. She had woken up by the time Jackie was up, however. It was impossible to sleep through her nagging at Rose. This time it was to start searching for another job. 

“There’s Finch’s. You could try them. They’ve always got jobs,” Jackie offered.

“Oh great,” responded Rose with a roll of her eyes, playing with an apple. “The butchers.”

Her and Jackie were sitting down at the kitchen table when Akane came out of the bathroom. She had the same jeans on as yesterday, but it was hard to tell since she had changed her shirt. There was no way that she would fit into Rose’s clothes as Rose was too skinny, but she always kept an extra shirt in her bag incase of emergencies. As opposed to the plain blue shirt from yesterday, Akane now wore a red, short sleeved shirt with Marvin the Martian on it. The irony of it did not go unnoticed by her.

“Well, it might do you good!” Jackie exclaimed when Akane sat down. “That shop was giving you airs and graces. And I’m not joking about compensation; you’ve had genuine shock and trauma, both of you!” 

Akane rolled her eyes as the older woman got up to go get ready; “shock and trauma” as Jackie had put it was nothing new for her.

“Arianna got two thousand quid off the counsel just because the old man behind the desk said she looked Greek!” Jackie continued without missing a beat as she moved towards her room. “I know she is Greek, but that’s not the point. It was a valid claim!”

As Jackie entered her room, a rattling started by the door. It was the door of the cat flap and Rose knew it. 

“Mum!” she called out as she got up to go check the flap “You’re such a liar. I told you to nail that cat flap down. We’re going to get strays!”

“I did it weeks back!” Jackie called back. Rose rolled her eyes, causing Akane to laugh as she too went to go investigate. 

“No, you thought about it!” Both girls knelt down to examine the cat flap, but found that the nails that actually had been holding it shut were now on the floor. Akane picked one up gingerly, turning it over to look for anything weird about it. She jumped back. Something had just poked through the cat flap. Rose bent down further and tentatively poked the piece of plastic as Akane looked on.

Nothing happened. Rose poked it again, pushing it further up so that she could look through it. Akane couldn’t see what it was, but Rose gasped and jumped up onto her feet. Akane followed suit as the blonde opened the door just in time for the Doctor to stand up as well. 

“What are you doing here?” he asked, staring at the girl as if being in her home was a monstrous thing to do. 

“I live here,” Rose answered, the nonverbal ‘duh’ coming through in her voice.

“Well what do you do that for?”

“‘Cus I do. I’m only at home because someone blew up my job,” she complained drily, but the Doctor didn’t pay her any mind as he took out his sonic screwdriver again and inspected it.

“And I’m here because the resulting blast ruined my apartment,” Akane added. 

“Huh. Must’ve gotten the wrong signal. You’re not plastic are you?” he asked, clearly believing that this was an obvious option as he then tapped on Rose’s forehead with his knuckles. “No, bonehead. Bye then!” he waved as he turned to leave. 

“You. Inside. Right now” Rose almost growled, not letting her chance at getting information slip away. The Doctor’s eyebrows shot up as the human pulled him inside and shut the door. He turned towards Akane, who had been trying to hide her grin at his reaction, and waved his hand helplessly towards Rose as she went to go pass off a lie to her mother. 

Akane giggled, “She’s like that.” 

“Don’t mind the mess. Do you want coffee?” Rose asked after the Doctor had finished denying her mother’s advances. Akane sat back down at the kitchen table, finishing her own coffee and grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl to finish off her breakfast.

“Might as well, thanks,” the Doctor agreed, taking a look around the flat as Rose went into the kitchen to make it. 

“We should go to the police, seriously. All three of us,” Rose called from the kitchen. 

Akane watched amusedly as the Doctor ignored Rose to instead pick up several things. The first was some news magazine, her grandmother would’ve called it a rag, with a comment of “That won’t last; he’s gay and she’s an alien.” The next was a book called “ _ Lovely Bones” _ by Alice Sebold. Akane had read it herself a few years back, and agreed with the Doctor when he said it had a “sad ending.” Then he found an envelope and, with complete disregard for personal privacy, looked at it, reading aloud the name “Rose Tyler.”

“Ah, could’ve been worse. Look at the ears,” he commented, gazing at himself in a nearby mirror. He reached up to flick his own earlobe, as if that alone made his ears big. Akane giggled when he tried and failed to shuffle a deck of cards and got them all over the floor. 

“Oh hey, I didn’t know you knew how to play 52 pick up,” she grinned, causing the Time Lord to glare at her. His attention was diverted by another rattling sound, a pale streak of something darted behind the couch. 

“What’s that then? You got a cat?” he called back to Rose, who promptly answered with a ‘no.’ He went over to the couch that the streak had darted behind and peered over the edge, Akane curiously following. She knew what it was, but still. It was a moving mannequin hand. It was cool. The hand darted up from behind the couch, quickly latching onto the Doctor’s throat and choking him. Okay, maybe not so cool.

“We did have, but now they’re just strays.”

Akane gasped as the man in leather staggered backwards, strangled cries for help flying from his throat as he tugged at the plastic hand. Akane quickly rushed over and started tugging as well. By the time Rose had meandered into the living room with coffees in hand, asking something about the Doctor’s name, Akane and the Doctor were able to pull it off of him. Akane staggered backwards with momentum from the final pull. Weird, she thought. She was holding a living, plastic hand. That was new. She didn’t have time to further that thought as the hand turned to attack her instead. She let out a sound that was somewhere between a yelp and a scream as the hand pushed her back against the wall. 

Rose quickly realized what was going on and started to pull at the hand, as did the Doctor. It was the Doctor, however, who went tumbling into the coffee table with Akane as he tried to jerk her free. She paid no attention to the fact that she was now  _ on top of _ the Doctor. Instead she found that it was getting harder and harder to breathe as dots began to swim in the little vision she had. With every tug and pull that was made against the plastic being, it held on tighter, completely covering Akane’s mouth and nose. She felt hands pull her up off the floor before the plastic hand pushed her into the couch, trying to get away from the Doctor. 

Half-pinning her from the side, the Doctor was finally able to rip the arm off of Akane’s face and destabilize it with his sonic screwdriver. Akane caught her breath as the Doctor stopped the hand from moving, the fingers slowly flexing before finally resting. 

“It’s all right. I’ve stopped it, see? Armless!” the Doctor joked, not at all fazed by the fact that the arm had nearly killed him and one of the girls. 

“D’you think?” Rose quipped angrily. That thing had nearly killed one of her friends and he was cracking jokes! She took the arm from him and whacked him with it.

“No, seriously Rose. It’s fine,” Akane assured, causing Rose to half-smile at her. “He dis-armed it.”

The soft look on the blonde’s face quickly hardened as she turned and whacked Akane with the arm too, reveling in her pain as the Doctor burst out laughing, “Oh, I like you!”


	8. Some Dreams Do Come True

“Now then,” declared the Doctor. Akane was still sitting on the couch after the plastic hand attack. Rose was next to her now, almost blocking her protectively from the Doctor. Twice now they’d met him and both times they’d almost been killed. Akane could still barely believe that she had actually met the Doctor and was actually holding conversation with him. The alien, oblivious to her ponderings, grabbed the arm from Rose and quickly started making his way to the door. “I’ve got to go take care of this. Lovely chatting with you two,” he quickly rambled, trying to get away from the humans as fast as he could. 

“Hold on! You can’t go swanning off!” cried Rose, jumping up taking off after the alien. Honestly! One of her friends had nearly just died again and he was trying to run away!

“Yes I can; here I am. Swanning off. See ya!” the Doctor rushed, practically running down the stairs.

“Dude that arm-thing of yours just tried to kill me,” commented Akane, who was trailing directly behind Rose. “You’re not going anywhere.” 

“Ten out of ten for observation, then. And I’m still getting away!”

“You can’t just walk away. That’s not fair! You’ve got to tell us what’s going on!” Rose protested. They’d reached the bottom of the stairs now and were now just following after each other, not quite running but still walking briskly. 

“No I don’t.”

“Fine,” Akane finalized, thinking quickly as they came out in front of another set of apartments. “We’ll go to the police. You said that if we do then people will get killed.”

“Yeah!” Rose exclaimed, catching on to what Akane was doing. “Either you tell us or we’ll start talking.”

The Doctor turned to look at the girls, half-scoffing and half grinning as he teased; “Is that supposed to sound tough?”

“Sort of.”

“Doesn’t work.”

The trio were quiet for a moment, the Doctor still walking along towards a seemingly random destination with Rose and Akane blindly following. If Akane had to guess, then he was going to the TARDIS to track down the signals from the arm. 

Meanwhile, Rose had been staring at the Doctor with an incredulous look; the man was a complete enigma to her and every question that was thrown at him was all too quickly brushed aside. “Who  _ are _ you?” she asked.

“Told you. I’m the Doctor,” the alien responded without missing a beat. The amount of times he had heard that question over the years…

“Yeah but Doctor what?”

“Just the Doctor.”

“...The Doctor.”

“Hello!” the Doctor grinned, waving at the girls.

“Is that supposed to sound impressive?” Rose laughed.

“Sort of.”

“What are you even doing here though?” Akane interjected. “I mean seriously; you show up at Rose and I’s workplace and single-handedly take down the remake of the  _ Walking Dead  _ and then show up at Rose’s house, which is incredibly fucking creepy since we didn’t tell you where she lived, and take down some stupid, creepy, living plastic arm. Who the Hell are you?” Okay, she actually knew the answer to that one, but Akane couldn’t deny that she was even a  _ little _ bit ticked off that the Auton’s arm had gone after  _ her _ and nearly killed her. She’d nearly suffocated for fuck’s sake! 

Wait. 

She’d nearly suffocated and then ran down a bunch of flights of stairs and hadn’t had some sort of asthma attack. She needed to look into that.

“Oi. Language,” the Doctor reprimanded, causing Akane to roll her eyes. 

“Just answer the question then!”

This time it was the Doctor who rolled his eyes. Really, humans were an inquisitive bunch. “Like I said, I’m the Doctor. I was just passing through; I’m a long way from home.”

“But, I mean,” continued Rose, the only one that was actually lost on what was going on. “What have we done wrong? How come those plastic things keep coming after us?”

“Oh! So now the entire world revolves around you!” the alien cried dramatically. “You were just an accident. You got in the way, that’s all.”

Akane scowled; even if that technically was true it was incredibly rude. 

“It tried to kill her!” Rose protested.

“It was after me, not you!” the alien tried to argue back. If he knew that these humans were just going to interrogate him the entire time then he wouldn’t have even bothered dropping by again. “Last night, in the shop, I was there. You blundered in, almost ruined the whole thing by the way. This morning, I was tracking it down and it was tracking me down. The only reason it fixed on you is ‘cos you’ve met me.”

“So let me see if I’ve got this straight.” Akane started, taking over the argument once more. The Doctor nodded, curious to see if at least one of the girls could keep up. Wait, why was she grinning? “You’re saying the entire world revolves around you now?”

The Doctor grinned, barely able to hold back a laugh. Ooh these girls; they were sassy. “Sort of, yeah,” he agreed.

“But all this plastic stuff,” Rose interrupted. She and Akane had begun to trail behind the Doctor now, quickening their pace to catch up to him only to fall behind the pace of his long legs again. “Who else knows about it?”

“Yeah. Who can we go to to help stop this thing?”

“No one,” the Doctor answered grimly.

“What, you’re on your own?” Rose inquired.

“Well, who else is there?” the Doctor retorted. “I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, go to bed, and watch telly while all the time, underneath you, there’s a war going on.”

“Woah, woah, woah. What do you mean, ‘war?’” Akane asked. Another war? She vaguely remembered this line from the show, and she knew about the Time War already, but did the Doctor mean a different war? A war on Earth? Granted, there were the alien attacks every Christmas, but still.

“Nevermind that. Start from the beginning,” instructed Rose. “If we’re going to go with the living plastic and I don’t even believe that, but if we do, how did you kill it?”

“The thing controlling it projects life into the arm. I cut off the signal, dead,” he explained, as if cutting off the signal to a living mannequin arm with a sonic screwdriver was an everyday task. 

“So that’s radio control?” queried Rose.

“Well, you did say life right? The thing controlling it projects life?” cut off Akane, inserting her own questions. The Time Lord in question nodded, slightly surprised at being cut off at an answer. Only once in awhile this would happen; a human or other species would be able to form their own answers if they were clever enough. His eyebrows were raised in surprise, but his mind raced with hope. A clever human who could keep up with him, that was what he needed right now. 

“If it’s projecting life then wouldn’t it have to be like mind control or something? Mind control transmitted into some sort of frequency that the plastic would resonate with and respond to.”

The Doctor stopped. He vaguely realized that the other girl, Rose, had as well, but she wasn’t the human he was focused on. Akane was, 19, 20, somewhere around there, in the middle of 2005, and she was spouting off about frequency-resonated thought control. Not her exact words no, but she had the theory. “Did you just come up with that on your own?” he asked. He pushed down the part of his brain that scream ‘companions!’ He couldn’t do it again, not so soon, not after Gallifrey.

Akane’s eyes darted between the Doctor and Rose; both were staring at her like she had grown a second head. Shit, she’d done it again. She’d rambled off some science theory that no one in their right mind would ever think of. Sure, she’d remembered the radio, thought, whatever it was control in her head, but everything else had been thought up on the spot. It could’ve been to impress the Doctor; she really didn’t know for sure, but it was probably an underlying cause anyways. The other part of her that did know what was going on was screaming  _ SCIENCE! _ and  _ PHYSICS! _ in her head, rampaging to be let out and do some sort of sciency thing again. 

“Erm, yeah. Why?”

“‘Cos  _ that _ was genius.”

“I.... um. Thanks…..” Akane blushed.

The Doctor had just called her a genius.  _ The Doctor had just called her a genius.  _ Okay, no, she couldn’t freak out here. Still on public property, still in public for that matter.  _ But the Doctor had called her a genius. _

“But you’re wrong; not terribly wrong, mind you. Just got the name wrong. It’s thought control, not mind control. It’s merely suggesting what the arm should do instead of forcing it to do so.”

Akane’s shoulders sagged at that; no she wasn’t horribly off, but she still hated being wrong. 

“Alright, so who’s controlling it then?”asked Rose, trying to move on from her friend’s sudden stroke of genius. They’d started moving forwards again, although ⅓ of the group still had no idea where to.

“Long story.”

“But what’s it all for? I mean, shop window dummies, what’s that about? Is someone trying to take over Britain’s shops?”

“Yes, totally Rose. Next we’re going to have robots fly in from some other planet and fight the living mannequins over who gets to enslave the human race.”

Rose rolled her eyes, laughing at her coworker and bumping her shoulder. “Oh shove off! What is with you and the human race getting enslaved?”

“It’s not me! Blame whoever comes up with the plots for alien movies!”

The Doctor laughed along with the girls. “No, it’s not a price war. Nor is it enslavement either. They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you,” he finished solemnly. “Do you believe me?”

“No.”

“I’m not sure yet.”

“But you’re still listening.”

“Really though, Doctor,” Rose started again, stopping behind while the Doctor kept going. They’d rounded a corner now, and Akane could hear children laughing nearby. There must’ve been a playground nearby. “Tell me, who are you?” 

The Doctor stopped again, giving a little huff of a laugh as he thought of something. “Do you know like we were saying?” he asked. “About the Earth revolving? It’s like when you were a kid. The first time they told you the world’s turning and you just can’t quite believe it because everything looks like it’s standing still…. I can feel it,” he paused once he was back where the girls were and grabbed their hands. “The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling round the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We’re falling through space, you two and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world and if we let go.” He dropped their hands. “That’s who I am. Now forget me, Rose Tyler, Akane Honda,” he finalized, grabbing the arm from Rose and waving it at them. “Go home.”

The Doctor walked back to where he was headed when Akane finally noticed the TARDIS. It standing there, out in the open just like in the tv show. It looked exactly the same too, like a 1960s police box. She bit her lip, a fangirlish squeal being repressed behind it.  _ It was the TARDIS. The actual, fucking, TARDIS.  _

“C’mon,” Rose muttered, turning back around to go back to her flat. If the man himself wasn’t going to give her answers, she’d just have to find them herself. Akane, almost jumping from being pulled out her fangirl-induced state, turned to follow. But then she heard it; the wheezing, the grinding, the sound that cheered out ‘hope’ to species all across the stars. Both girls gasped and spun back around, darting across the grass to find out what or where the noise was coming from. That noise was weird, decided Rose, but weird spelled out Doctor. 

When they got there, however, there was nothing. Literally nothing, Akane realized. The TARDIS had moved. It had actually moved. She didn’t remember much after that, only somehow finding her way back to Rose’s flat. Her head was too foggy to really register anything other than that the TARDIS was real. It existed, and so did the Doctor. The Doctor was  _ real _ . The  idol that had been able to distract her from everything that happened in her family was real, and he actually did go around saving lives. And she’d met him. Had been saved by him even, had ran with him. If Akane hadn’t known better, she would’ve shouted for joy; but then she’d look like a lunatic and she couldn’t have that again. There was one plus that came from going to a new universe and having nobody know the old version of yourself; your reputation was a clean slate to work off of. 

After an earful from Jackie about breaking the coffee table, subsequently cleaning it up, and then being told to pay for a new one, the girls split up; Rose to Mickey’s in order to use his computer, and Akane to her now burned apartment in order to survey the damage. 

She’d never really seen a burned building before, not up close anyway. It was weird seeing all the black and charred walls. A good chunk of both Hendrik’s and a couple surrounding apartments, hers included, were completely gone; anything that remained was charred black or in ashes. There was still police tape around Hendrik’s and the surrounding buildings, but the firefighters and ambulances were all gone at this point. Only a couple of policemen were guarding the area, blocking people from going inside and watching over the cleaning crew that was cleaning the sidewalks. After haggling with one of the officers to prove that she did indeed live in the apartments, Akane found out that hers, like Jack had said, had been totally annihilated since it was right next to the roof of Hendrik’s. They wouldn’t let her inside to check it out though as they gave the cliché, but probably true, response that it was “unsafe.” 

Akane walked away from Trafalgar Square dejectedly; she was just getting used to the apartment too. It had begun to feel like some sort of home, a safe place she could go to. The belongings, well, they were replaceable. And anything that was from her universe was carried on her person in her bag, both for privacy and for sentimental purposes. It was more the fact that it was gone than anything else. A month ago she wouldn’t have really cared about the apartment; it was small in the grand scheme of things, but a month of going there after work and being able to do what she wanted without any wandering eyes had felt like a little slice of Heaven. Some days it was disturbing, how quiet it was compared to the liveliness of her father’s, but it was filled with beeping horns and racing cars and she could play her music by herself, so it was enough for now. But now it was gone, she couldn’t go back to it anywhere. Rose, she could go back to her mother’s like she always did until she could get a place of her own; she only had to replace her job. Akane, though, had to replace everything. Again. Lord, she thought. That was going to be expensive. 

Rose got back to the apartment only a few minutes after Akane had gotten back. It seemed that her and Mickey were going out for pizza for dinner - was it that time already? - and wanted Akane to join them. They had to figure out where she was going to live, after all, and their job situation. 

“Do you think I should try the hospital?” Rose asked at the restaurant, picking at her nails. She and Mickey were sitting across from each other with Akane sitting between them. Rose had given her a weird look when the brunette had scooted closer to her rather than being in the middle of both her and Mickey, but hadn’t said anything. “Suki said they had jobs going in the canteen. It that it then, dishing out chips?”

“What about a GED or something?” Akane asked, fiddling with her fork. Rose only looked at her weirdly again. “Going back to school, I mean. Getting your degree.”

“Oh, yeah we call those A levels here,” Rose explained. She then sighed, leaning back in her chair. “I hate being so limited with my choices; it’s all Jimmy Stone’s fault. I only left school because of him, and look where he ended up. What do you think Mickey?”

“So, where did you meet this Doctor?”  he asked completely disregarding the entire conversation Rose and Akane had just had. The show hadn’t done an accurate job of showing his plasticness, Akane decided. His “skin” was less multi-toned, more monotonous and shiny than the show’s version. Granted, it was made with 2004-2005 technology, but still. 

“I’m sorry, wasn’t I talking about me for a second?”

“Because I reckon it started back at the shop, am I right? Was he something to do with that?”

“No,” Rose sighed, trying to brush of the questions. She didn’t care about the Doctor anymore, not that much anyway. Clive was clearly a nutter, she had no discrepancies about that, but what he said about the Doctor showing up right before danger happened, well, he had a point. 

“Come on,” Plastic-Mickey pleaded. 

Rose was quiet for a moment, playing with the end of one of her sleeves. “Sort of.” Plastic-Mickey would not be deterred, however, and pressed for more.

“What was he doing there?”

“I’m not going on about him, Mickey. Really, I’m not, because, I know it sounds daft, but I don’t think it’s safe. I think he’s dangerous.” 

“I don’t know, Rose, he seemed pretty arm-less to me,” Akane grinned. Plastic-Mickey didn’t notice when she jumped up from a sharp jab in her side.

“But you can trust me, sweetheart. Babe-” Mickey’s voice cut out, suddenly getting 2 octaves deeper and twitching along with his body. “Sugar, babe, sugar.” Normal. “You can tell me anything. Tell me about the Doctor and what he’s planning, and I can help you, Rose. Because that’s all I really want to do-” Deep. “Sweetheart, babe, babe, sugar, sweetheart.”

“What’re you doing that for?” Rose asked, not noticing a waiter coming over to the table.

“Your champagne,” offered the waiter, showing off a bottle to Mickey. Out of habit, Akane looked up at the waiter as was considered polite. Instead of a normal waiter, however, there stood the Doctor - still in his leather jacket - with a bottle of champagne in his hand. 

“We didn’t order any champagne,” Mickey rebuttled, not looking up at him. “Where’s the Doctor?”

The Doctor walked over to Rose, still offering out the bottle. “Madame, your champagne.” Akane, who was still looking at him with a grin, caught his eye. The Doctor winked back at her.

“It’s not ours. Mickey, what is it? What’s wrong?” Rose anxiously asked. Why was he acting so weirdly? Why was he so interested in the Doctor? Why was he gripping her hands so tightly?

“I need to find out how much you know, so where is he?”

“Madame, will you take some?” he asked Akane, who was struggling not to burst out laughing. The Doctor had a stupid grin on his face as well; how could Rose and the other bloke not notice it was him? The man was even asking for him!

“Sorry, I don’t drink,” was Akane response. 

The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Doesn’t anybody want this champagne?” he groaned. 

“Look we didn’t order it.”

Thoroughly annoyed, both Rose and Plastic-Mickey looked up at this point, finally taking account of the Doctor’s presence. Plastic-Mickey wickedly grinned at his success of finding the Doctor, “Ah, gotcha.”

“Don’t mind me!” the Doctor happily grinned back, beginning to shake the champagne bottle. “I’m just toasting the happy couple. On the house!” he cried, popping the stopper off of the bottle so that it flew off towards Plastic-Mickey, the induced carbonation sending it flying at high-speed. People had stopped what they were doing at the sudden sound and instead of going back to what they were doing, they continued to stare as the cork hit Plastic-Mickey’s forehead, being absorbed and shifted around until Plastic-Mickey spit it out of his mouth and at the Doctor. 

Rose’s mouth had fallen open at the display from her boyfriend; had she seriously not noticed before? Akane could tell right off the bat, granted she already knew that Mickey had been replaced with a plastic copy, but she honestly thought that Rose would be better than this. Maybe she became more aware when she began travelling with the Doctor? Yeah, that had to be it.

“Anyway,” Plastic-Mickey addressed, and promptly sprang up from the table, turning his hand into some sort of block and smashing the table with it. Akane shrieked as Rose screamed, both jumping away from the table and towards the Doctor.

The Doctor, however, moved towards the auton disguised as Mickey, slightly wrestling with it before he was able to pull off its head. The body went flying back, smashing another few tables and making customers scream. As the receptors were still active, the auton’s head taunted, “Don’t think that’s going to stop me,” causing the couple holding onto each other for dear life in front of the Doctor to scream. 

Rose pulled the fire alarm next to her to get all of the patrons out of danger. “Everyone out! Out now!” she commanded, followed by Akane’s “Get out!” Both girls began ushering people out as they ran with the Doctor through the kitchen and through the back door. “Get out, get out, get out!”

The body, which was acting much like a cartoon version of the Headless Horseman, was trying to find its head, crashing into counters and tables and destroying everything in its path. Once they had reached the outside world, the Doctor immediately grabbed his sonic screwdriver and worked on locking the door, causing the Auton to bang at the door helplessly. Rose immediately sprinted for the back gates and started tearing at the chain lock helplessly, yelling for the Doctor to come unlock it with his “tube thing.” The auton remained banging away at the door, getting closer and closer to smashing through it with every bang of its hands.

Akane had started running towards the gates as well, the only thing on her mind being “get away from the plastic robot thing,” but then a certain shade of blue caught her eye. She stopped mid-stride, taking a few more steps to slow herself down, before turning around to inspect the blue object. It was the TARDIS in all of its glory, and Akane stared at it as if it were the Beatles brought back from the dead or a pokémon brought to life. 

“Um, Doctor. Why is there a police box behind a restaurant? Odd place to put an art project.” she stated, vaguely pointing at the spaceship. The Doctor had come up behind her pulling out his keys while Rose was still pulling at the gates.

“Because it’s an excellent place to hide,” he claimed, stepping into the TARDIS. “And it’s called a sonic screwdriver!” he called back towards Rose, who was still tearing at the gates. 

“You can’t hide inside a wooden box!” cried Rose, running over from the gates to stare at the box incredulously. “It’s going to get us! Doctor!”

Akane paid no mind to the blonde girl as she ran back to the gates, shaking them to try and get them open. Akane was staring at the TARDIS, at the open doors in front of her, the darkness of London effectively hiding the doorway and what lay inside of it. This was her chance, her first real chance to step inside the TARDIS and to see it in real life. She’d met the Doctor - twice now - and if the TARDIS was real, if it was really bigger on the inside with a whole other dimension, then she wasn’t dreaming; she couldn’t possibly be. Akane took a shaky step forward, both excited and scared of what she would find. Her head was cocked to the side, her brown eyes trying to peer in the doorway without having to go in it. Maybe if she saw that it was normal before she stepped inside it wouldn’t hurt as much. But the contrast of the light from the spaceship was too much for the London darkness to handle and it wasn’t until Akane had stepping over the threshold of the TARDIS that she could see anything. 

She blinked, her eyes quickly adjusting to the new source of bright light, and took a look at her new surroundings. Akane gasped, her eyes wavering across the room as she took in her bearings; the coral beams were the same, the ramp leading up to the control center, the control panel circle itself, the pipes that would oscillate back and forth as the TARDIS flew, and the overall grunginess of the place. It was exactly as she’d dreamed, even bigger than she thought that it would be. 

Akane heard the doors opening and closing behind her, knew Rose had entered the TARDIS and was subsequently freaking out over its impossible size, but she was rooted to her spot, too amazed by it all to really do anything. 

“The TARDIS…” Akane whispered to herself. “It’s…” she attempted, louder this time so that the Doctor would hear, trying to formulate just how amazing and spectacular the TARDIS was without the proper words to do so. 

“It’s gonna follow us!” cried Rose, running back indoors and running up the ramp. When had she gone out?

“The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn’t get through those doors and believe me, they’ve tried,” retorted the Doctor, stalking around the TARDIS control center with Plastic-Mickey’s head in his hands. He was hooking up various different wires and plugs to the plastic head, aiming to trace the signal that was animating it in order to follow it. “Now, shut up a minute.”

That girl, the brunette one, how did she know the TARDIS’ name?

“You see,” he started not a moment later, he could figure that out later. He had some Autons to figure out. “The arm was too simple, but the head’s perfect! I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source.” He set the head down, hitting a couple buttons to get the scan started, and then turned around to face Akane and Rose. “Right, where do you two want to start?”

“Er, the inside’s bigger than the outside?” Rose questioned, continuing to gaze about the TARDIS in confusion. 

“Yes,” the Doctor nodded, almost a little impatiently. The amount of times he’d heard that line….

“It’s alien,” Akane breathed, dragging her eyes away from the TARDIS to look up at the Doctor. He, like everyone else, was taller than her. 

“Yep,” the Doctor agreed again, popping the ‘p’ as he went. 

“Are you alien?” Rose asked, looking up at the Doctor nervously. It was all too weird, and so sudden. Her boyfriend had been turned into some sort of plastic monster, his head had been ripped off and had then tried to kill her, and now she was in a box that was bigger on the inside with a man that quite possibly wasn’t even human. 

“Yes. Is that alright?” the Doctor asked nervously.

“Yeah…” breathed Akane, trying to suppress the grin that was aiming to grow on her face. She was in the TARDIS! The real, actual, TARDIS! 

“It’s called the TARDIS, this thing,” the Doctor explained, giving the spaceship an appreciative glance. “T-A-R-D-I-S, that’s Time and Relative Dimension in Space.”

Akane couldn’t help but just stare at the ship in shock. This was real…. Everything, all of it, was real….. She was in another dimension. 

Rose burst out into tears beside her, effectively pulling the brunette out of her shock-induced haze. Akane quickly rushed over, wrapping her arms around Rose’s shoulders to try and comfort her. She was upset over Mickey, wasn’t she? Or was it because of the TARDIS? Damn, she couldn’t remember properly. 

“That’s okay,” the Doctor soothed. “Culture shock, happens to the best of us.”

“Did they kill him? Mickey?” Rose cried out through her tears, attempting to pull herself together enough to at least interrogate this strange man enough. What was going on? How was all of this even possible?! “Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?”

“Oh, I didn’t think of that…” the Doctor realized, his face scrunching up in confusion. 

These humans, that man must’ve been their friend. Why hadn’t he thought of that? He knew why he hadn’t, he could never forget why. This was why he didn’t bring people on board anymore, why he didn’t have companions. They would just be more lost relationships. More lost people, more people whose lives would never be the same again. 

“He’s my boyfriend!” Rose yelled. “You pulled off his head! They copied him and you didn’t even think?! And now you’re just going to let him melt?!” Rose was gesturing to the melting plastic head by the time she finished, royally pissed off by the entire sequence of events. 

“Melt?” the Doctor questioned, turning to his left to where the head was. “Oh no no no no no!” he yelled panickedly, staring at what was left of the head bewilderedly. It took him a second to start bouncing around the console again, pulling levers and pushing buttons to get the TARDIS moving. 

“What are you doing?!” cried out Akane, grabbing on to the railing next to her to stabilize herself. The TARDIS wasn’t moving much, just side to side as the pillars in the middle began to oscillate back and forth, but it was enough to set Akane’s nerves on edge. It was weird though, her stomach didn’t feel queasy. First her asthma wasn’t acting up and now her motion sickness wasn’t either? If the Doctor let her stay she’d have to have him look at her. Would the Doctor even let her stay though? She couldn’t possibly run with him if she had all these problems.

Akane pushed those thoughts away, now was not the time to worry about those things. She would when everyone was out of danger. 

“Following the signal! It’s fading!” the Doctor yelled back amongst his piloting. He paused in front of the monitor hopefully, looking at whatever was on screen that would let him know whether he’d latched onto the signal or not. “Wait a minute, I’ve got it.”

Just as quickly though, it was gone. 

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no! C’mon,” he urged the TARDIS. “Almost there, almost there. Here we go!”

With one final surge and one ring from the cloister bell, the TARDIS landed, the Doctor immediately brushing the girls aside as he ran for the door. 

“You can’t go out there! It’s not safe!” Rose spun around and yelled after him, but the Doctor ignored her. That man was on a mission and the idiotic apes in his spaceship wouldn’t stop him. 


	9. And So It Begins

The Doctor sprinted outside the TARDIS, looking around him to figure out where the signal had come from. There was nothing there, though. It was just the city! It was just London. 

Rose and Akane gingerly stepped out of the TARDIS, their eyes wide as they looked about themselves. They were in a different place, the TARDIS had moved!  Akane readjusted the strap of her bag with a grin on her face; she had just flown in the TARDIS! She closed the door behind her as she looked out over the Thames excitedly.

“I lost the signal. I got so close,” the Doctor bemoaned. 

“We’ve moved…” Rose admitted. “Does it fly?”

The Doctor shook his head agitatedly as he leaned on a cement railing, this was not what he needed to be dealing with right now. “Disappears there and reappears here. You wouldn’t understand.”

“If we’re,” Rose started, looking around as she still tried to comprehend how they had moved. “If we’re somewhere else, then what about that headless thing? It’s still on the loose….”

“It melted with the head. Are you going to witter on all night?” the Doctor complained, walking back towards the TARDIS. 

“You don’t have to be rude about it! I don’t know what you regularly do but this is new to us!” Akane exclaimed angrily. 

The Doctor frowned, opening his mouth after a moment with a retort ready, but Rose interrupted. 

“I’ll have to tell his mother,” she muttered, running a hand through her hair. The Doctor stopped, looking at the blonde bewilderedly.

“She means Mickey, Doc.”

“I’ll have to tell his mother he’s dead and you just went and forgot him. Again!” Rose fumed. “You were right, you are alien.”

She began walking away from the Doctor, too pissed off and distraught over her boyfriend to think rationally about it all. 

“Look, if I did forget about some kid called Mickey-”

“Yeah, he’s not a kid.”

“It’s because I’m trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering about on top of this planet, all right?”

“All right?!” Rose shrieked back.

“Yes, it is!”

Akane stared between the two, eyes wide as she tried to figure out what to do. They were shouting, shouting was bad. She breathed out slowly, move the conversation to something else. Hopefully Rose and the Doctor would be distracted from their argument long enough to cool down.

“If you’re supposed to be an alien, then why do you sound all British?” she asked the Doctor tentatively, stepping forward a bit if only to put a bit of a barrier between him and Rose. In all actuality it was hilarious how British every version of the Doctor was, yeah there were a few Scottish ones thrown in the mix, but they were mainly all British. 

“Yeah, how comes you sound like you’re from the North?” Rose joined in, eager to get back to a topic that she could most likely handle. 

The Doctor shifted into a defensive stance, arms crossed, faced away, and very pointedly not looking at either of the girls. “Lots of planets have a North!”

Akane rolled her eyes. Honestly, he was acting like a child. “Fine then, riddle me this. What’s a police public call box? Like obviously something used for calling the police, but like, were they actually popular, or common, or whatever?”

The Doctor grinned now, eager to show off his magnificent ship to newcomers, and bounced around to the side of his TARDIS, stroking the wood lovingly. “It’s a telephone box from the 1950s. It’s a disguise.”

Rose stepped forward towards the pair. If the Doctor could act this civil to Akane, then maybe she could get some answers out of him. “Okay and this, this living plastic thing. What’s it got against us?”

“Nothing! It loves you,” exclaimed the Doctor. “You’ve got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth; dinner!”

“So how do we stop it?” Akane asked, shifting her weight to one side and crossing her arms. She was getting to the good part now, where everything got figured out and the plot would be solved, and it was honestly kind of nerve wracking. What use would she be? Everything got solved in the show by Rose and the Doctor alone, so what could she do? Would the events change? Was she supposed to fix something?

Akane trailed after the Doctor and Rose as he explained the anti-plastic and Rose figured out what the transmitter was, but she was barely paying attention to it all. Something had been nagging at Akane’s brain ever since she’d shown up in the new universe, something that was very dangerous to think about. Now that she was actually with the Doctor, it was all resurfacing. What was she supposed to do? What was she supposed to fix? Did she take the place of Rose as Bad Wolf? Did she go into Pete’s universe instead? Or did she last longer than that? Was she meant to do some other companion’s task? 

Akane was broken from her thoughtful state by the metallic clanging of the Doctor unscrewing the sewer lid, haphazardly pushing it to the side in order to climb down. She jumped as the lid hit the metal box loudly, clenching her mouth shut and her hands into fists to stop herself from screaming. She was fine. No one was hurting her. She was completely fine. It wasn’t until Rose was calling Akane to come down with them that her body finally listened to the message from her brain and untensed itself. 

An intense heat burst up from the opening, an intense, dry type of heat that immediately hit Akane’s face as she slowly climbed down. The ladder, despite its grunginess, was cold against her skin, solid and rough beneath her fingers; a rigid presence that helped Akane ground herself to the situation. Even if she really couldn’t stop herself, this wasn’t the right time to freak out over an effectively cut off situation.

She joined Rose and the Doctor by the railing, peering downwards where some 30 or 40 feet below resided the Nestene Consciousness, as the Doctor pointed out. It was a mix of reds and oranges and yellows, swirling and churning together like an ocean made out of lava, small pops and sparks filled the air as the Consciousness crashed into itself inside the vat. 

“Well then, tip in your anti-plastic and let’s go,” ordered Rose, staring at the Nestene Conscious nervously. Nothing about this entire situation seemed right, it was disturbing.  

“I’m not here to kill it,” the Doctor admonished. “I’ve got to give it a chance.” Humans were so quick to violence. The Doctor held back a sigh as he walked down towards the Nestene Consciousness, Akane and Rose at his heels. Rose stopped on the stairs, glancing warily at the giant vat of molten liquid, but Akane and the Doctor continued downward, right towards the edge of a platform that overlooked the alien. The Doctor’s face was grim, but he held himself high and confidently as he approached.

Compared to the Doctor, Akane was the complete opposite. Nervous curiosity drove her forward until she was clutching the railing, peering over the edge with childlike abandon at the swirling form that was the Nestene Consciousness.

“I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation,” called out the Doctor. His face was carefully neutral, but he was tense. If he could just talk calmly to the Consciousness, then maybe, just maybe, this could all end nicely. But if it got freaked out….

The other alien bubbled up with a little screech and the Doctor relaxed, a small grin on his face. “Thank you! If I might have permission to approach?”

Rose gasped just then, clambering down the stairs and sprinting down towards the level below and, incidentally, Mickey. The Doctor rolled his eyes as Rose shot past him and Akane; so much for playing it careful. 

“Mickey, it’s me!” Rose gasped as she ran down another set of stairs. “It’s okay. It’s all right!” She embraced him tightly, not wanting to let go again, but Mickey’s entire body was shaking. He quickly shushed Rose and pointed his quivering hand down towards the alien. 

“That thing down there, the liquid. Rose, it can talk!” He woefully cried. He’d just gone to inspect the trash barrel, and then he’d gotten trapped and taken down to this- this place! What the hell was going on?! 

Rose ignored her boyfriend’s attempts to warn her, instead commenting on his stench with a small cough. Her head turned back to the Doctor and Akane as their shoes clanged against the metal stairs. “Doctor, they kept him alive!”

“Yeah, that was always a possibility. Keep him alive to maintain the copy.”

“You knew that and you never said?” Rose glared at him, her arms wrapped tightly around Mickey. 

“Can we keep the domestics outside, thank you?” the Doctor brushed off and continued down the next set of stairs, stepping out in front of the Nestene Consciousness. With a little bit of urging from Rose, Mickey shakily stood up, his eyes glued to the molten alien down below, Akane and Rose lead him over to the railing, able to look out over the Doctor and the Nestene Consciousness from a safe distance. 

“Am I addressing the Consciousness?” the Doctor asked calmly. There was a large flash of light in the room as the Consciousness roared and shifted in reply. 

“Thank you,” the Doctor continued. “If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shunt off?” The Doctor was grinning now, amused at his own joke. Rose rolled her eyes, but Akane giggled. Puns were her weakness, however stupid they got. 

The Consciousness, however did not seem to be so amused as it roared once again, a more visible face rising out of its liquidized state and wavering angrily.

“Oh don’t give me that! It’s an invasion plain and simple. Don’t talk about constitutional rights!”

Another roar.

“I. Am. Talking,” the Doctor roared back, and Akane had to stop herself from clutching onto the railing in fear. She couldn’t stop how her breath caught in her throat, however, and the strangled noise that resulted. Rose shot her a concerned look, but Akane just kept staring down at the Doctor and the Nestene Consciousness. 

She missed the Doctor’s speech about how stupid and young the people of Earth were and his pleas for the Consciousness to just leave in peace, she was too busy trying to calm herself down. She knew that she was relatively safe, that the Doctor’s anger wasn’t directed at her. 

_ Not yet. _

Oh joy, her intrusive thoughts were back. But no, she was fine, she could worry about the Doctor’s reaction to her story later. Right now, she was fine. 

“Doctor!” Rose called out, shocking Akane out of her personal moment. 2 Autons came out from the shadows and grabbed the Doctor’s arms, restraining him from doing anything. One of them reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the vial of anti-plastic

“That was just insurance!” the Doctor pleaded amongst what seemed to be angry cries from the Consciousness. “I wasn’t going to use it!  I was not attacking you. I'm here to help. I'm not your enemy. I swear, I'm not…. What do you mean?”

A large and heavy looking door loudly slid aside from the wall a few feet away from Rose, Akane, and Mickey, revealing the TARDIS. 

“Oh no,” muttered Akane.

“No. Oh, no. Honestly, no,” exclaimed the Doctor. The Nestene Consciousness screeched. “Yes thats my ship.”

Another screech.

“That's not true! I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault! I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!”

The Nestene Consciousness apparently didn’t like that answer as it suddenly reared what Akane assumed to be its head back and forth violently. 

“What’s it doing?!” she called down.

“It's the Tardis! The Nestene's identified its superior technology. It's terrified. It's going to the final phase. It's starting the invasion! Get out you two! Just leg it, now!”

“We can’t leave you!” Akane exclaimed. She didn’t know why she said it, that wasn’t what was supposed to get said, but it felt right, like it was the right thing to do in that moment. The moment ended, however, when Rose’s phone began to ring, it was her mother. 

As Rose began to try and persuade her mother to go back home, Akane took stock of what was in the chamber. There had to be something she could do to help the Doctor. What had Rose done? Oh. Yeah. Swung out on the rope like a gymnast to kick over the Autons. Except Akane had little upper body strength so that was out of the question. There had to be something,  _ something.  _ Something she could throw or maybe kick at the Autons.  _ Something. _

Just as Rose clacked her phone shut, the Nestene Consciousness threw up a giant beam of energy against the ceiling, breaking through with a giant crash and sparks flying everywhere. It looked light lightning as far as Akane was concerned, the way it came up and over the Nestene Consciousness and thrashed in the air, it was like it was barely being contained enough to be sent towards the transmitter up top. 

“It’s the activation signal!” cried the Doctor. “It’s transmitting!”

“No shit Sherlock!” Akane cried back. Then she suddenly grew quiet, her eyes darting about. “There’s gotta be something we can do….” But what? There were no rocks or bricks or anything that looked as if it could actually hinder the Autons. 

“It’s the end of the world…” muttered Rose, staring up at the ceiling with horror. She’d heard all of thee screams from people over her phone, she’d heard all of the wreckage that those things were doing up on the surface. 

“Get out, Rose and Akane! Just get out! Run!” the Doctor screamed, desperately trying to get out of the Auton’s grip. The other one was just standing there creepily, holding out the anti-plastic as if to mock him. It was so close… If only he could just get out of this stupid pawn’s grip.

“The stairs have gone!” Rose yelled back. The heat of the underground chamber was getting hotter with every passing second. Her skin felt close to melting as Rose struggled to breathe in air that wasn’t putrid with sweat and stench. The energy beam from the Consciousness was wreaking havoc too; the stairs had just collapsed and debris from the shaking ceiling was falling everywhere. There was nowhere to go, no way to get out. Wait, no, the Doctor’s ship! The TARDIS! Rose grabbed Mickey’s arm, quickly ushering him over towards the ship. Rose quickly pushed into the doors, expecting them to open, but they didn’t. “I haven’t got the key!” she cried as she repeatedly tugged and pushed on the TARDIS doors. 

“We’re going to die!” Mickey cried. 

“Akane!” Rose realized, temporarily stopping her assault on the wooden doors. “Didn’t you say that you could pick locks?”

“Simple ones yeah!” Akane fired back. “I can’t pick my way into an interdimensional spaceship!” 

The Doctor paused in his struggle, what had Akane just said?

Rose, however, paying no mind to Akane’s usual scientific chatter, groaned and continued to try and think of something else. She had to get those plastic things away from the Doctor and/or get to the anti-plastic somehow. But there was nothing, absolutely nothing to use!

Akane glanced at Rose. She was clearly panicking, although under the circumstances it was perfectly understandable. Akane was as well and clearly so was Mickey judging by his outbursts. But surely Rose had to know what to do by now? Right? Right??

As the seconds continued to tick by, it was clear to Akane that Rose wasn’t thinking about using the chain at all and wouldn’t be in the foreseeable future unless she herself suggested the idea. Akane quickly looked around, trying to find the chain that Rose was supposed to swing out on. 

“Rose,” Akane cried as she finally spotted the chain. “You’re good at gymnastics stuff!”

“Is this really the time?” Rose quipped back, staring at Akane incredulously. 

“No, you idiot the chain!” Akane pointed out the chain to Rose, the latter promptly grinning at Akane and dashing over it and chopping the rope holding it back with an axe. Rose grabbed firm hold of the chain and swung out towards the Doctor, managing to kick one of the Autons back into the pit that was the Nestene Consciousness, the anti-plastic’s vial being broken in the process and spilling onto the alien. The Consciousness began to violently scream. With one of the Autons now distinctly out of the way, the Doctor was able to throw the other one off of him and also into the vat of alien.

“Rose!” cried the Doctor, his arms out to catch her on the chain’s rebound. “Now we’re in trouble,” he grinned. Rose grinned back, now safe in the Doctor’s arms. The two quickly began running back towards the TARDIS as explosions fired off almost simultaneously around the room. 

Akane whimpered and grimaced every time an explosion happened, taking in a shuddering breath as she made herself not cover her head in fear. Instead she made herself coax Mickey out of clinging to the TARDIS so that the Doctor could quickly unlock the doors and get them all inside where it was safe. 

The Doctor was running wildly around the console, looking like a lunatic as he drove them all to safety. Akane took a second to breathe, to remind her brain that she was fine now, that she’d been fine for a while now, and that what she wanted to hide from wasn’t there. She gripped the coral beam next to her as she tuned back into reality, grinning along with the Doctor and Rose as they too gripped whatever was closest to balance themselves during the Doctor’s shaky flying. 

They’d just defeated an alien. 

She’d just defeated an alien with the Doctor!

Then the shaking stopped and Mickey was the first to burst out of the TARDIS doors, stumbling as far away from the time machine as possible. Akane stood off to the side as Rose phoned her mom, probably wanting to make sure that she was alright. Akane grinned at the Doctor, who was idling in the doorway of the TARDIS. He grinned back before Rose’s teasing of Mickey refocused them. 

“Nestene Consciousness?” The Doctor snapped his fingers, a relaxed grin on his face. “Easy.”

“You were useless in there. You’d be dead if it wasn’t for us,” Rose reminded him, languidly motioning between her and Akane. 

“Yes I would,” the Doctor acquiesced. “Thank you, both of you.” There was a beat before he continued. “Right then,” he started, clapping his hands together. “I'll be off, unless, er, I don't know, you two could come with me.”

Akane almost laughed at how nervous the Doctor sounded, but she stopped herself knowing that it would be rude and out of place. She settled for a quick smile with Rose. She was definitely on board, but Rose looked not so sure. The Doctor quickly noticed this and upped the offer. 

“This box isn't just a London hopper, you know. It goes anywhere in the universe free of charge.”

“Don’t,” Mickey quickly interjected. Though the boy was completely freaked out, Akane gave him points for recognizing how dangerous the Doctor’s life was and not wanting part in it. Not everyone could, she hoped she could. “He’s an alien. He’s-He’s a thing.”

“He’s not invited,” the Doctor quickly pointed out. “What do you think?” The Doctor nervously glanced between the two girls.

“Yes,” Akane breathed, looking at the Doctor excitedly before mentally kicking herself. From his eyes she didn’t even know what his life was like or what the TARDIS could do. But the Doctor just grinned at her, looking at gleeful as she was. He turned to Rose next, sombering slightly at the hesitant look on her face. 

“You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go anywhere.”

“Is it always this dangerous?” Rose asked. 

“Yeah.”

At that, Mickey quickly latched onto Rose’s side. “Yeah, I can't. I've er, I've got to go and find my mum and someone's got to look after this stupid lump, so. 

“Okay,” the Doctor nodded. “See you around.”

Akane meekly smiled at Rose before following the Doctor into the TARDIS. The Time Lord was up at the console, a cheery persona quickly overtaking his body as he set the TARDIS into the Time Vortex. Akane jogged up to the console, only just grabbing onto it in time as the Doctor took off.

“So! Anywhere in all of time and space, yours to choose from, Akane Honda. Where should we go?” the Doctor grinned over at her, pausing in his chaotic piloting. Akane grinned back, actually beginning to think of places to go before something clicked. 

“Wait a minute, we can travel anywhere in time? We can time travel?” she feigned curiosity.

“Yes?” the Doctor stared at her confusedly, had something not clicked with her yet?

“And you didn’t think to tell this to Rose?”

The Doctor stared at her a moment, realization dawning on him before he was sprinting back around the console, Akane holding on for dear life in the meantime. Seconds later, the gyroscopic motion stopped and the Doctor was sprinting back down the ramp, slamming one of the doors open.

“By the way, did I mention it also travels in time? 

Akane didn’t hear Rose’s response, but she already knew what it would be; a kiss on the cheek to Mickey before she sprinted into the TARDIS. The girls’ lives as time travelers was ready to begin. 


End file.
